Definition of "preponderate"

preponderate

verb
third-person singular simple present preponderates, present participle preponderating, simple past and past participle preponderated
1. (transitive) To outweigh; to be heavier than; to exceed in weight.
  Quotations
  an inconsiderable weight by virtue of its distance from the Centre of the Ballance, will preponderate much greater magnitudes
  1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica
2. (transitive) To overpower by stronger or moral power.
  Quotations
  That is the preponderating consideration to which everything else has to yield.
  1898, William Graham Sumner, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, in War and Other Essays, Yale, page 359
3. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to prefer; to incline; to decide.
  Quotations
  The desire to spare Christian blood preponderates him for peace.
  1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, and the Profane State
4. (intransitive) To exceed in weight or influence; hence, to predominate.
  Quotations
  Anxiety preponderated over hope; and it was scarcely possible for Evelyn to encounter a danger not previously conjured up by the alarmed fancy of his mistress.
  1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 22
  […] if the principle of utility is good for anything, it must be good for weighing these conflicting utilities against one another, and marking out the region within which one or the other preponderates.
  1861, John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism‎
  Train journeys were not long in terms of distance, and having regard to these factors, the tank engine inevitably preponderated.
  1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 161

Definition of "preponderate"

preponderate

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations