surmount

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.
   • this difficulty may perhaps be surmounted by care and art1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 10
   • There are two realms: that of divine powers, another of the metadivine.¹ Even the gods are depicted as calling upon metadivine forces to surmount their own predestined limitations.1960, Yehezkel Kaufmann, “Chapter II: Pagan Religion”, in Moshe Greenberg, transl., The Religion of Israel, University of Chicago, →OCLC, page 23
2. (transitive) To cap; to sit on top of.
   • The boiler had a large dome over the firebox, inside the cab, surmounted by Ramsbottom safety valves.1951 April, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes: London Midland Region”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 283
   • 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.2007, Robert Chitham, The Classical Orders of Architecture, →ISBN