[f. next, or ad. F. surcharge (from 16th c.): see SUR- and CHARGE sb.]
1. A pecuniary charge in excess of the usual or just amount; an additional or excessive pecuniary charge; = OVERCHARGE sb. 2.
1601. F. Tate, Househ. Ord. Edw. II., § 67 (1876), 48. So as the cuntry … may not wax deere by surcharge without reson.
1646. W. Hughes, Mirr. Justices, i. § 5. Sherriffs, who too high charge the people, by a surcharge upon the people of horses, or of doggs.
1685. trans. Chardin’s Coronat. Solyman, 95. She besought him to remit the Surcharge which he had laid upon the poor Armenians.
1812. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 101. A surcharge made on him for 10l.
1838. Arnold, Hist. Rome, I. xvii. 351. It might happen … that no property tax was levied, and in that case the censor’s surcharge, or over valuation, would have been inoperative.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 486. A history of fistula … does not call for surcharge [in life assurance].
b. Equity. The act of showing an omission in an account, or a statement showing this: cf. SURCHARGE v. 1 b.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 8 April 1687. The accompt was at last brought to one article of the surcharge, and referr’d to a Master.
1754. Ld. Hardwicke, in Vezey, Reports (1773), II. 566. The court takes it as a stated account, and establishes it: but if any of the parties can shew an omission, for which credit ought to be, that is a surcharge: or if any thing is inserted, that is a wrong charge, he is at liberty to shew it, and that is falsification.
1884. Law Rep., 27 Chanc. Div. 111. The Defendant carried in a complete account, and the Plaintiffs carried in a surcharge.
c. A charge made by an auditor upon a public official in respect of an amount improperly paid by him: cf. SURCHARGE v. 1 c.
1879. Daily News, 25 March, 4/6. They charge interest on the advances, and this interest the auditor has disallowed. It would therefore fall on the members of the Board as a surcharge, were it not that the Local Government Board overrules the disallowance on public grounds.
2. Law. (trans. law-L. superoneratio.) The overstocking of a common or forest: see SURCHARGE v. 2, Obs. exc. Hist.
1559. in S’hampton Crt. Leet Rec. (1905), I. 53. To ye greate Surchardge of yr said comon.
1598. Manwood, Lawes Forest, xiv. 84. To inquire … what number of Acres, the place of Common, wherein the surcharge is supposed to be made, doth containe.
a. 1634. Coke, Inst., II. (1642), 370. A writ de secunda superoneratione lyeth … onely against them, against whom the writ was brought, and which were particularly charged with surcharge in the writ. Ibid., IV. lxxiii. (1648), 293. Surcharge of the Forest [see SURCHARGE v. 2].
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. xvi. 239. If, after the admeasurement has thus ascertained the right, the same defendant surcharges the common again, the plaintiff may have a writ of second surcharge, de secunda superoneratione, which is given by the statute Westm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 8.
1797. Jacob, Law Dict., Surcharge of Common.
3. An additional or excessive ‘charge,’ load, burden or supply (of something material or immaterial); = OVERCHARGE sb. 1.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. ii. (1632), 3. Being otherwise full, and over-plunged in sorrow, the least surcharge brake the bounds and barres of patience.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 200. Adding as it were some olde surcharge to their toils and fooleries.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. To the King § 14. The great quantitie of Bookes maketh a shewe … of superfluitie…, which surcharge neuerthelesse is not to be remedied by making no more bookes, but by making more good books. Ibid. (1626), Sylva, § 228. The Aire, after it hath receiued a Charge, doth not receiue a Surcharge, or greater Charge, with like Appetite, as it doth the first Charge.
a. 1683. Owen, Chamber of Imagery, viii. (1870), 34. The sending of missionaries, as they call them, or a surcharge of friars from their over-numerous fraternities.
1683. Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, II. (1684), 125. When Nature is cased of any surcharge that oppresses it.
1746. Phil. Trans., XLIV. 712. After the Gun-barrel and Phial have been sufficiently excited,… the Surcharge is dissipated; so that the continuing the Motion … ever so long after the Saturation is complete, does not increase the electrical Force.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 323. Any surcharge of punishment on persons adjudged to penance, so as to shorten their lives.
1803. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 10. The surcharge of the learned, might in time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of citizens.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxii. 339. A surcharge of aliment and alcohol.
4. The action of surcharging or condition of being surcharged; overloading.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Plantations (Arb.), 533–4. Send Supplies proportionably; But so, as the Number may liue well, in the Plantation, and not by Surcharge be in Penury.
1793. Beddoes, Calculus, 204. Preventing the surcharge of oxygene in the blood.
1799. Med. Jrnl., II. 385. Cases of surcharge, retention, or indigestion.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), IV. 645. Atonic apoplexy … is more a result of vascular debility than of vascular surcharge.
1882. Bain, Jas. Mill, vi. 304. Mill, whose mind was … in a state of surcharge upon the question of free enquiry.
5. An additional mark printed on the face of a postage-stamp, esp. for the purpose of changing its face value.
1881. Stamp-Collector’s Ann., 15. In that of 10 cents the surcharge is found sometimes with and sometimes without the word cents. Ibid., 24. The V. R. surcharge was also imitated.
1914. F. J. Melville, Postage Stamps, 19. The remaining and most important of the additions to a stamp is the ‘overprint’ or ‘surcharge.’
6. Ceramics. ‘A painting in a lighter enamel over a darker one which forms the ground’ (Cent. Dict., 1891).
