overprint

Noun

overprint (plural overprints)

1. An addition of new text on a previously printed stamp, usually to add a surcharge or change the face value.
2. (by analogy) The set of petrological, structural, and/or mineralogical characteristics superimposed onto rock by the action of geological processes over deep time.
   • Although we do not exclude that some of the observed Moodies laminae were originally microbial mats, the mineral assemblage of the studied anastomosing and wavy laminae (i.e., mainly sericite associated with Ti oxide and rare carbonaceous material) shows a substantial metamorphic overprint...2021 August, Masafumi Saitoh, Nicolas Olivier, Marion Gar on, Maud Boyet, Christophe Thomazo, Julien Alleon, Jean-François Moyen, Vincent Motto-Ros, Johanna Marin-Carbonne, “Metamorphic origin of...
   • This is the first report from the Alps of eclogite-facies rocks of supposed Alpine age showing a granulite-facies metamorphic overprint, which is, in contrast, well documented in the Variscan belt.2018 January, Simone Tumiati, Stefano Zanchetta, Luca Pellegrino, Claudia Ferrario, Stefano Casartelli, Nadia Malaspina, “Granulite-facies Overprint in Garnet Peridotites and Kyanite Eclogites of...

Verb

IPA/ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈpɹɪnt/

overprint (third-person singular simple present overprints, present participle overprinting, simple past and past participle overprinted)

1. To print over what has already been printed.
   • This is the way overprinting works on the ZX Spectrum: two papers or two inks give a paper, one of each gives an ink. This has the interesting property that if you overprint with the same thing twice you get back what you started off with.1982, Steven Vickers, Robin Bradbeer, Sinclair ZX Spectrum: BASIC Programming
2. (transitive) To add an overprint to (a stamp).
3. (by analogy) To superimpose a new set of petrological, structural, and/or mineralogical characteristics onto rock by the action of geological processes over deep time.
   • Furthermore, these rocks are overprinted by seafloor weathering, which provides a challenge to reconstructing serpentinization processes.2024 August, C. Johan Lissenberg, Andrew M. McCaig, Susan Q. Lang, Peter Blum, Natsue Abe, William J. Brazelton, Rémi Coltat, Jeremy R. Deans, Kristin L. Dickerson, Marguerite Godard, Barbara E....
   • Dominantly dextral shearing in the Chester zone occurred during post-Acadian plate adjustments around ca. 380 Ma (Ghanem et al. 2016), coeval with initial activity along the Norumbega fault system to the southeast and the shear fabrics overprint rocks on both upper and lower plates of the original...2017 March, Allan Ludman, John T. Hopeck, Henry N. Berry IV, “Provenance and paleogeography of post-Middle Ordovician, pre-Devonian sedimentary basins on the Gander composite terrane, eastern and...
4. (transitive) To print too many copies of.
   • The unpopular comic book was overprinted, leaving many retailers with dozens of unsaleable copies.
5. To overlap different colours to avoid gaps.