ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED1.] Overburdened, overloaded, charged to excess. Also fig. (In quot. 1837 = SUPERHEATED 1.)
1615. Brathwait, Strappado (1878), 100. Surcharged brests must needs their greefes expresse.
a. 1658. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 201. I found no Billows … to endanger the passage of my late surcharged vessel.
1681. Flavel, Right. Man’s Ref., vi. 197. Causing the designs of the wicked, like a surcharged gun, to recoil upon and destroy themselves.
1798. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 283. The surcharged heart cannot resist … unmerited kindness.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 135. [Thirst] is … intolerable on a surcharged stomach.
1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 26/2. The steam being saturated with heat … this surcharged steam becomes a floating agent.
1849. Alison, Hist. Eur., II. viii. § 18. 247. Quarries … employed as a place of deposit for the bones in the surcharged cemeteries of the capital.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. (Low), xx. § 834. Vapour borne by those surcharged winds.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc., Surcharged or Overcharged Mine, in Military Mining, a mine loaded with a very great charge of powder. It is sometimes called a globe of compression.
b. Of a postage-stamp: see SURCHARGE v. 6.
1881. Stamp-Collector’s Ann., 16. The surcharged sixpennies, doing duty for pennies, are discontinued.
