v. [f. SUPER- 2 + IMPOSE v. after superimposition.]
1. trans. To impose or place (one object) on or upon another; to lay above or on the top. a. gen.
1823. H. J. Brooke, Introd. Crystallogr., 291. The first plate of molecules which is superimposed on the primary plane.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. ix. 288. An ancient churchyard was superimposed on a still older cemetery.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., I. ii. 142. Producing a mixture of all the colours by superimposing three films one on the other.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 211. One thickness of ruby paper with one thickness of orange paper superimposed.
b. spec. in Geol. in reference to stratification: always in pa. pple. (cf. SUPERIMPOSED 1).
1794. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 362. These sandstones have been found crystallized in rhomboidal tables superimposed one upon the other.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. The., 88. The schistus was not super-imposed on the granite, after the formation of this last.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, iii. 43. Beneath four buried forests superimposed one upon the other.
2. fig. To cause to follow upon something else and to exist side by side with it.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., III. iv. § 9. I have the idea of a mountain and the idea of gold, and by superimposing the one upon the other, I can evoke the image of a mountain of gold.
1879. Earle, Philol. Engl. Tongue (ed. 3), § 334. This diminutival form -et, -ette, was in old French often superimposed upon the effete diminutival -el.
1889. Spectator, 28 Sept., 395/2. Superimposed on them are the Spaniards, and next to these the Italian, Swedish, English, and German settlers.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 381. The puerperal kidney has a mixed nature; it is one of diffuse nephritis upon which granular contraction is rapidly superimposed.
3. To place (a person) in a position as a superior.
1902. W. L. Mathieson, Politics & Relig. Scot., II. xviii. 193. Their object had been to superimpose on the Presbyterian organisation certain officials.
