a1625 J. Norden Speculum Brit.: Cornwall (1728) 92 The wiseste man wilbe moste afrayde to aduenture Nere it, thowgh the continuance..manie thowsande yeares may importe suffitient warrant, it will not now fall;..yet the prepondering minde of future daungers may vpon the view be easelye perswaded of perill in standinge nere it.

1651 Severall Proc. Parl. No. 107. 1657 Neither the feeling and fearing of the former, nor the expectation of the latter, could have induced your Petitioner against the light of his owne judgement, and the prepondering part of his owne Conscience to have made, or presented this acknowledgement.

1679 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 3) xiv. 66 To make it grow upright, take off the prepondering branches with discretion.

1754 B. Martin Introd. Eng. Lang. & Learning iii. xv. 187 A very strong elastic Steam..being let into a Cylinder,..gives Liberty for a large Piston to move upwards,..by the prepondering Weight of the Piston of a Pump at the other End.

1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad xiv, in Wks. (1835–7) 42 Our own prepondering scale May plunge us past all hope.

1839 H. F. Gould Poems 175 He 'd seized on one too strong and great... And on, by that prepondering weight, And downward, he was drawn.

1859 J. B. Jones Border War viii. 69 The party so audaciously and so successfully despoiling the leaders of the Abolitionists, might be the prepondering power.

1912 Times 31 Dec. 2/4 Formerly the county Benches were, to a prepondering degree, recruited from the landed classes.

1998 Hindu (Nexis) 17 Sept. This scheme was to consist of a prepondering cistern of water to draw the canal boat up an incline from one level to another.