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''surcharge'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260227164232-00-⌔

surcharge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

surcharge (plural surcharges)

  • An addition of extra charge on the agreed, stated, or baseline price.
    • ✤ Hyponym: upcharge
    • ✤ Our airline tickets cost twenty dollars more than we expected because we had to pay a fuel surcharge.
  • 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.
  • An excessive price charged e.g. to an unsuspecting customer.
  • (philately) An overprint on a stamp that alters (usually raises) the original nominal value of the stamp; used especially in times of hyperinflation.
  • (art) A painting in lighter enamel over a darker one that serves as the ground.
  • (law) A charge that has been omitted from an account as payment of a credit to the charged party1
  • (law) A penalty for failure to exercise common prudence and skill in the performance of a fiduciary’s duties.
  • (obsolete) An excessive load or burden.
    • ✤ A Numerous Nobility, cauſet Pouerty, and Inconuenience in a State: For it is a Surcharge of Expence;2
  • (law, obsolete) The putting, by a commoner, of more animals on the common than he is entitled to.

Verb

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

  • To apply a surcharge.
  • To overload; to overburden.
    • ✤ to surcharge an animal or a ship; to surcharge a cannon
    • ✤ My heauy hart I feare will breake in twaine,
      Surcharged with a heauie loade of thoughts.      3
    • ✤ Your head reclin’d, (as hiding grief from view,)/Droops, like a Roſe ſurcharg’d with morning Dew.4
    • ✤ The threat was soon fulfilled; the evening came on, prematurely darkened by clouds that seemed surcharged with a deluge.5
    • ✤ The first, on January 1, 1883, was attributed to the overlay becoming surcharged with water, due to insufficient drainage, and causing a slip.6
  • (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.
    • ✤ 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.7
  • To show an omission in (an account) for which credit ought to have been given.
    • ✤ The Idle multitude surcharge their laies8

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsɜːt͡ʃɑːd͡ʒ/
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈsɜɹt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. Alexander M[ansfield] Burrill (1850–1851), “SURCHARGE”, in A New Law Dictionary and Glossary: […], volume, New York, N.Y.: John S. Voorhies, […], →OCLC. ↩

  2. 1625, Francis[Bacon], “Of Nobility. XIIII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 73: ↩

  3. 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I: ↩

  4. 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, Act III, page 33: ↩

  5. 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 150: ↩

  6. 1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80: ↩

  7. 1768, William Blackstone, “Of Disturbance”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 237: ↩

  8. 1599, Samuel Daniel, Musophilus: ↩

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