superincumbent

comparative more superincumbent · superlative most superincumbent

1. sciencesLying or resting on something else; overlying.

   As the vapour cooled the water would be precipitated, and an ocean would surround the spherical nucleus with a superincumbent atmosphere.

   1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 61

   3 more examples

   […] alas, on the contrary, what troops and populations of Phantasms, not God-Veracities but Devil-Falsities, down to the very lowest stratum, — which now, by such superincumbent weight of Unveracities, lies enchanted in St. Ives’ Workhouses, broad enough, helpless enough!

   1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. I, Phenomena”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker)

   Then a superincumbent bundle rolled down, with a whisking noise, flames elongated, and bent themselves about with a quiet roar, but no crackle.

   1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC

   The older Verrucano must have travelled to its present position as it slid and ground its way on the back of the oppressed Lochseiten limestone, which buckled and churned under the superincumbent load.

   2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 87