surcharge

From Middle French surcharge, from Old French. By surface analysis, sur- +‎ charge. Doublet of supercharge.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː(ɹ)t͡ʃɑː(ɹ)d͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

surcharge (plural surcharges)

1. An addition of extra charge on the agreed or stated price.

   Our airline tickets cost twenty dollars more than we expected because we had to pay a fuel surcharge.

2. The part of the price of a subsidized good or service that is not covered by the subsidy and so must be paid by the consumer.
3. An excessive price charged e.g. to an unsuspecting customer.
4. (philately) An overprint on a stamp that alters (usually raises) the original nominal value of the stamp; used especially in times of hyperinflation.
5. (art) A painting in lighter enamel over a darker one that serves as the ground.
6. (law) A charge that has been omitted from an account as payment of a credit to the charged party
7. (law) A penalty for failure to exercise common prudence and skill in the performance of a fiduciary's duties.
8. (obsolete) An excessive load or burden.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Nobility. XIIII.”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 73:

     A Numerous Nobility, cauſet Pouerty, and Inconuenience in a State: For it is a Surcharge of Expence;

9. (law, obsolete) The putting, by a commoner, of more animals on the common than he is entitled to.

• surtax
• surcharged

surcharge (third-person singular simple present surcharges, present participle surcharging, simple past and past participle surcharged)

1. To apply a surcharge.
3. To overload; to overburden.

   to surcharge an animal or a ship; to surcharge a cannon

   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw , Act I:

     My heauy hart I feare will breake in twaine,
     Surcharged with a heauie loade of thoughts.

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. , London: T N for Henry Herringman, , published 1676, →OCLC, Act III, page 33:

     Your head reclin’d, (as hiding grief from view,) / Droops, like a Roſe ſurcharg’d with morning Dew.

   • 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. , volume I, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., , →OCLC, page 150:

     The threat was soon fulfilled; the evening came on, prematurely darkened by clouds that seemed surcharged with a deluge.

   • 1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80:

     The first, on January 1, 1883, was attributed to the overlay becoming surcharged with water, due to insufficient drainage, and causing a slip.

4. (law) To overstock; especially, to put more cattle into (e.g. a common) than one has a right to do, or more than the herbage will sustain.
   • 1768, William Blackstone, “Of Disturbance”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 237:

     Another diſturbance of common is by ſurcharging it; or putting more cattle therein than the paſture and herbage will ſuſtain, or the party hath a right to do.

5. To show an omission in (an account) for which credit ought to have been given.
   • 1599, Samuel Daniel, Musophilus:

     The Idle multitude surcharge their laies

• discount

• supercharge

• “surcharge”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): /syʁ.ʃaʁʒ/
• Homophones: surchargent, surcharges

• Audio:

  (file)

From sur- +‎ charge.

surcharge f (plural surcharges)

1. overloading
2. (object-oriented programming) overloading

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

surcharge

1. inflection of surcharger:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “surcharge”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.