S U R 
Small favours will my prayers increase: 
Granting my suit, you give' me all; 
And then my prayers must needs surcease; 
For I have made your godhead fall. Donne. 
To leave off; to practise no longer; to refrain finally. 
Nor did the British squadrons now surcease 
To gall their foes o’erwhelm’d. Philips. 
To SURCEA'SE, v. a. To stop; to put to an end. 
All pain hath end, aud every war hath peace; 
But mine no price, nor prayer, may surcease. Spenser # 
SURCEA'SE, s. Cessation; stop.—It might very well 
agree with your principles, if your discipline were fully 
planted, even to send out your writs of surcease into all 
courts of England for the most things handled in them. 
Hooker. 
To SURCIIA'RGE, v. a. [sur charger, Fr.] To over¬ 
load ; to overburthen. 
More remov’d, 
Lest heaven surcharg'd with potent multitude, 
Might hap to move no broils. Milton. 
SURCHA'RGE, s. [surcharge, Fr.] Burthen added to 
burthen ; overburthen ; more than can be well borne—The 
air, after receiving a charge, doth not receive a surcharge, or 
greater charge, with like appetite as it doth the first. Bacon. 
SURCHA'RGER, s. One that overburthens. 
SURCl'NGLE, s. A girth with which the burthen is 
bound upon a horse. The girdle of a cassock.—Justly he 
chose the surcingle and gown. Marvel. 
SURCINGLED, adj. Girt. 
Is’t not a shame to see each homely groome 
Sit peached in an idle chariot roome, 
That were not meete some pannel to bestride, 
Sursingled to a galled hackney’s hide ? Bp. Hall. 
SU'RCLE, s. A shoot; a twig; a sucker. Not in ge¬ 
neral use .—It is an arboreous excrescence, or superplant, 
which the tree cannot assimilate, and therefore sprouteth not 
forth in boughs and surcles of the same shape unto the tree. 
Brown. 
SURCO, the name of two inconsiderable settlements in 
Peru, in the provinces of Cercado and Guarochiri. 
SU'RCOAT, s. [surcot, old Fr.] A short coat worn 
over the rest of the dress. 
That day in equal arms they fought for fame; 
Their swords, their shields, their surcoals were the same. 
Dry den. 
SU'RCREW, s. Augmentation; additional collection. 
Not in use. —It [a fever] had once left me, as I thought; 
but it .was only to fetch more company, returning with a stir- 
crew of those splenetick vapours that are called hypochon¬ 
driacal. Wotton. 
SUR CUI in vita, in Law, a writ that lies for the heir 
of a woman, whose husband aliened her land in fee, and 
she neglected to bring the writ cui in vita for the recovery 
thereof, her heir may bring this writ against the tenant after 
her decease. 
To SU'RCULATE, v. a. [surculo, Lat.] To prune; 
to cut off youn? shoots. 
SURCULATION, s. The act of pruning.—When insi- 
tion and grafting, in the text, is applied unto the olive tree, it 
hath an emphatical sense, very agreeable unto that tree, 
which is best propagated this way ; not at all by surculation. 
Sir T. Brown. 
SURCULUS, a word used to express that part of the 
branching of the ribs of a leaf which is of the middle kind, 
between the great middle rib and the smallest reticular rami¬ 
fications. 
SURD, adj. [sourd, Fr.] Deaf; wanting the sense of 
hearing.—He who hath had the patience of Diogenes, to 
make orations unto statues, may more sensibly apprehend 
how all words fall to the ground, spent upon such a surd 
and earless generation of men, stupid unto all instruction, 
and rather requiring an exorcist than an orator for their con- 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1602. 
SUR 709 
version. Brown. —Unheard ; not perceived by the ear. 
Not expressed by any term. 
SURDNU'MBER, s. That which is incommensurate with 
unity. See Absurd. 
SU'RDITY, s. Deafness. 
SURDY, a small uninhabited island in the Persian gulf, 
situated to the south of Kishme. Lat. 25. 54. N. 
SURE, aclj. [seure, Fr.] Certain ; unfailing ; infallible. 
Who knows. 
Let this be good, whether our angry foe 
Can give it, or will ever ? IIow he can 
Is doubtful, that he never will is sure. Milton. 
Certainly doomed.—Our coin beyond sea is valued ac¬ 
cording to the silver in it: sending it in bullion is the safest 
way, and the weightiest is sure to go. Locke. —Confident; 
undoubting; certainly knowing. 
Friar Laurence met them both; 
Him he knew well, and guess’d that it was she; 
But, being mask’d, he was not sure of it. Shakspeare. 
Safe; firm; certain; past doubt or danger. To make 
sure is to secure, so as that nothing shall put it out of one’s 
possession or power. 
I bred you up to arms, rais’d you to power. 
All to make sure the vengeance of this day, 
Which even this day has ruin’d. Dryden. 
Firm; stable; steady; not liable to failure. 
Thou the garland wear’st successively ; 
Yet though thou stand’st more sure than I could do, 
Thou art not firm enough. Shakspeare. 
To he Sure. Certainly. This is a vicious expression: 
more properly he sure. —Objects of sense would then deter¬ 
mine the views of all such, to be sure, who conversed per¬ 
petually with them. Atterbury. 
SURE, adv. [surement, Fr.] Certainly; without doubt; 
doubtless. It is generally without emphasis; and, notwith¬ 
standing its original meaning, expresses rather doubt than 
assertion. 
Something, sure, of state 
Hath puddled his clear spirit. Shakspeare. 
SUREFOOTED, adj. Treading firmly; not stumbling. 
True earnest sorrows, rooted miseries. 
Anguish in grain, vexations ripe and blown. 
Surefooted griefs, solid calamities. Herbert. 
SU'RELY, adv. Certainly ; undoubtedly; without doubt. 
It is often used rather to intend and strengthen the meaning 
of the sentence, than with any distinct and explicable 
meaning.—In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die. Genesis. —Firmly ; without hazard.—He that 
walketh uprightly, walketh surely. Proverbs. 
SU'RENESS, s. Certainty. 
The subtle ague, that for sureness sake 
Takes its own time th’ assault to make. Cowley. 
SU'RETISHIP, s. The office of a surety or bondsman; 
the act of being bound for another. 
Idly, like prisoners, which whole months will swear 
That only suretyship hath brought them there. Donne. 
SU'RETY. s. [surete, Fr.] Certainty; indubitableness. 
—Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger. Gen. 
xv.—Security; safety.—There the princesses determining to 
bathe, thought it was so privileged a place as no body durst 
presume to come thither; yet, for the more surety, they 
looked round about. iSVr/^ey.—Foundation of stability; 
support. 
We our state 
Hold, as you your’s, while our obedience holds: 
On other surety none. 
Evidence; ratification; confirmation. 
She call’d the saints to surety. 
That she would never put it from her finger, 
Unless she gave it to yourself. 
8 S 
Milton. 
Shakspeare, 
Security 
