superstructionn.

1565 A. Nowell Reproufe f. 14^v The very true causes in deede, of this their subuersion, were their wicked foundations laied by their first founders, and the superstructions of Idolatrie, superstition, hypocrisie, and abominable life, whiche they, falsely named religious men and Priestes, heaped so hugely vpon the saied foundations.

1624 J. Ussher Serm. 22 The unitie of the faith..here spoken of, hath reference..to the foundation: as that which followeth of a perfect man..to the superstruction and perfection.

1638 W. Chillingworth Relig. Protestants i. iii. §57. 165 You must..believe the Church Infallible in all her proposalls, be they foundations, or be they superstructions.

1650 T. Hobbes De Corpore Politico 125 For the Points of Faith necessary to Salvation, I shall call them Fundamentall, and every other Point a Superstruction.

1683 E. Hooker in J. Pordage Theologia Mystica Pref. Epist. 71 Rotten Foundations, superstitious superstructions.

1795 E. Gunning tr. J. Du Castre d'Auvigny & P.-F. G. Desfontaines Mem. Madame de Barneveldt II. 25 The superstruction of her misfortune was to be seen, but the foundation of it she could not see.

1834 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 15 228 The removal of the irritating matter by judicious purgation may completely relieve the patient, and this, I believe, is the foundation on which the superstruction of the British purgative practice in ileitis and tabes mesenterica was raised.

1877 Primary Teacher Oct. 2 The teachers whom we shall address are doing the first work in education next to that of the parents; they are laying the foundations, more or less surely, on which the higher schools must place the superstruction.

1902 Harper's Mag. Apr. 786/2 Victor's terrors had a grim reality beneath, but even worse than the reality was the superstruction which his child's fancy had builded.

1930 Times 3 Oct. 17/2 Any attempt to solve the problem on the basis of a private monopoly would involve setting up an elaborate superstruction of official regulation, check, and control.

1995 R. Robin in J. Kim & E. Sosa Compan. Metaphysics (1999) 411/1 For Quine science requires no legitimization, certainly not by a metaphysical superstruction like Peirce's.

1612 J. Selden in M. Drayton Poly-olbion x. Illustr. 165 A great water, which could endure continuance of no heauy superstruction.

a1687 W. Petty Treat. Naval Philos. i. ii, in T. Hale Acct. New Inventions (1691) 125 The superstructions upon the upper Deck.

1760 J. Smeaton Reports (1812) I. 334 The mud or sleech that lies under the bed of gravel..may be made capable..of bearing the superstruction of a bridge.

1844 Boston Daily Atlas 11 Dec. The superstruction and rails are of the same style as the Western road, and of the best quality.

1881 Atlantic (Iowa) Daily Tel. 9 Aug. 2/6 The carriages can, therefore, be built in a lighter manner, thus..permitting all bridges and other superstructions to be built more cheaply than usual.

1927 Decatur (Illinois) Herald 23 July 3/8 The only feature..that ever gave the operating department a moment of uneasiness, was the possibility of fire impairing the value of the wooden supports of the superstruction.

1957 Business Hist. Rev. 31 101 S. F. Belknap & Co. obtained the contract for the grading, masonry, and laying of the superstruction after a very spirited competition.

1978 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 20 Dec. Shiva is built around a superstruction of white steel girders.

2000 M. von Ehr & R. Dillmann in E. Pagello et al. Intelligent Autonomous Syst. 6 663 The superstruction for the sensor placement consists of two linear drives and a pan-tilt unit.

1634 T. Jackson Knowledg of Christ Jesus iii. xxv. 257 The prejudice which the Arians had of the orthodoxall truth; whose breach or disruption in the Canon of the ancient Catholique faith, the first Nicene Councill sought to repaire, not by addition or superstruction of any new Articles of beleife, but by a gentle diduction or dilatation of that sense, which was included in the Apostles Creed.

1810 S. T. Coleridge Notebks. (1973) III. 3813 To set this forth with what majesty & grandeur I may be enabled to command, by an aggregation & superstruction of the particulars.

1840 T. De Quincey Style in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 14/2 It [sc. a sentence] is laid down as a rude outline, and then by superstruction and epi-superstruction it is gradually reared to a giddy altitude.

1926 Amer. Mathem. Monthly 33 149 The transition from a finite to an infinite set of elements..leads Hoelder to introduce the process of superstruction..of concepts as opposed to substruction.

1690 E. Warren Geologia (new ed.) iii. 75 Now where they [sc. tides] Ebbed end Flowed so frequently and incessantly; must not their Aestuation have been so turbulent, as to have hindred the gathering, or dissolved the continuity of the Oily Matter; and so have prevented the Earth's superstruction upon it?

1851 3rd Ann. Rep. Chief Engineer in 4th Ann. Rep. Directors Pennsylvania Railroad Co. 18 The cost of the graduation and superstruction of the Eastern Division..has fallen within the estimates heretofore submitted.

1909 Rep. State Treasurer on Finances of Commonw. Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Treasury) 796 (table) York Bridge Co. for mat. furn. for superstruction of Mifflin Bridge Over Susquehanna Co.

2003 H. Wang et al. in Y.-S. Yuan et al. Internat. Conf. Adv. Concrete & Structures II. d4. clii. 1264 With reference to the trade standard of the Ministry of Communications of PRC—The Superstruction of Assembly Prestressed Concrete Hollow Slab Bridges (JT/GQB001-93) and based on structural calculations, it is decided [etc.].