surmount

English

Etymology

From Middle English surmounten, from Old French surmonter (“to rise above, surmount”), from sur- (“above”) + monter (“to mount”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈmaʊnt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /sɚˈmaʊnt/
• Rhymes: -aʊnt

Verb

surmount (third-person singular simple present surmounts, present participle surmounting, simple past and past participle surmounted)

1. (transitive) To get or be over without touching or resting on; to overcome.
   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 10:

     this difficulty may perhaps be surmounted by care and art

2. (transitive) To cap; to sit on top of.
   • 1951 April, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes: London Midland Region”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 283:

     The boiler had a large dome over the firebox, inside the cab, surmounted by Ramsbottom safety valves.

   • 2007, Robert Chitham, The Classical Orders of Architecture, →ISBN:

     The ovolo surmounting the dentil course generally turns the corner by means of a carved acanthus leaf, the decorated cyma and cyma reversa being similarly treated at the corner.

Related terms

• surmountable
• insurmountable

Translations

Further reading

• “surmount”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “surmount”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “surmount”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Middle English

Verb

surmount

1. Alternative form of surmounten