surmount

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈmaʊnt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɚˈmaʊnt/

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

1. To get over; to overcome
   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 10.

     this difficulty may perhaps be surmounted by care and art

2. To cap; to sit on top off.
   • 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.

• surmountable
• insurmountable

• surmount in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• surmount in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• surmount at OneLook Dictionary Search