Obs. Also 7 sur-reverence, surreverance. [Variant of SIR-REVERENCE.]
1. = SIR-REVERENCE 1, 1 b.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., II. x. 27. All for loue (surreuerence Loue).
1600. Nashe, Summers Last Will, E iij b. Surreuerence of their worships, they feed at my stable, table, euery day.
1625. trans. Gonsalvius’ Sp. Inquis., To Rdr. B j b. Whose very name should not be spoken of without Surreuerence and great contempt.
b. By association with SUR- prefix, used for: Great reverence.
1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, C j b. Wherein mee thinks (the surreuerence of his works not impaired) he hath verie highly ouershotte himselfe.
1622. Fletcher, Prophetess, I. iii. Dio. … So great a reverence, and so stai’d a knowledge— Max. Sur-reverence, you would say.
2. = SIR-REVERENCE 2, 2 b.
[1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 75. I might as well haue writte of a dogges turde (in his teeth surreuerence).]
1655. trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, III. 73. Flinging Squibs, Crakkers, Dirt, and sometimes stinking Surreverences.
1663. Heath, Flagellum (1672), 18. Having besmeared his own Cloths and hands with Surreverence.
1710. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), III. 20. Some Persons abus’d the Statue of the late K. William … leaving a Surreverence upon the Back of his Horse.
