superincumbent layers of dead plants cut off the air and arrested decomposition.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

"Leave me, leave me, to repose:" and all go away home; like a party of miners who have given up the attempt to dig out persons buried in superincumbent earth!.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cransworth's Marriage and Divorce Bill] Reference

Many structures of this kind fall of their own superincumbent weight and clumsiness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post] Reference

This element is the constantly recurring lifting of the superincumbent weight of the machine.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures.] Reference

Just as he was about to clear it, down came the tottering superincumbent structure almost on their heads.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House), Retold from the Japanese Originals Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2] Reference

Sometimes the pressure on the superincumbent crust is so great as to cause an upheaval or disturbance of the valley.    From Wordnik.com.  [Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889] Reference

In the shallow diggings the superincumbent earth above the pay-dirt is removed, and the process is called "stripping.".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 106, August, 1866] Reference

The surface of the sea steams like a lime-kiln, caused by the water being still warmer than the superincumbent atmosphere.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Illustrated London Reading Book] Reference

A Greek column, for example, not only moves upward, but also against the superincumbent load of the entablature which it carries.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Principles of Aesthetics] Reference

It was accidentally discovered here, and has not been meddled with, further than by removing the superincumbent earth and rubbish.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862] Reference

Luther and his coadjutors exhumed from the superincumbent rubbish of the Middle Ages was dearer to him than his throne or his life.    From Wordnik.com.  [Luther and the Reformation: The Life-Springs of Our Liberties] Reference

Haflunormet's superincumbent could not only present proposals to the Grand Council; she could go so far as to make recommendations.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diuturnity's Dawn]

In this country, our democratic institutions have removed the superincumbent pressure which in the Old World confines the servants to.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864] Reference

This is caused by the superincumbent soil not being more than from one to three feet thick, in some places more, but varying exceedingly.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.] Reference

It is usually separated from the superincumbent beds by a glazed crust of hard, compact sandstone, almost resembling a ferruginous quartzite.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 105, July 1866] Reference

Here are ranged the series of furnaces which convert the copper and superincumbent enamel into one common body -- fuse the one into the other.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892] Reference

And there amongst them a delicate blossom, half crushed by the superincumbent weight of moss, the fallen leaves of last year, and tiny, lichen-covered twigs.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 356, October 23, 1886.] Reference

The part, a, resting upon the part, b, acts like a valve against the vesical outlet, which would become closed the tighter according to the degree of superincumbent pressure.    From Wordnik.com.  [Surgical Anatomy] Reference

The strong, blind, vegetable energy agonizes to find expression, and, wrestling like a pinioned giant, the soul of matter throws off the weight of Its superincumbent inertia.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 57, July, 1862] Reference

The right side is to be preferred to the left because in this position, the heart being on the upper side, is not embarrassed in its free movement by the superincumbent lung tissue.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction Also Sexual Hygiene with Special Reference to the Male] Reference

It is well known that at the earth's surface, the pressure on all parts of the body, internal and external, by the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere, is no less than 14½ pounds to every square inch.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy] Reference

I rose with some difficulty from under the superincumbent snowdrift, and alighted from the carriage, expecting that a kind and hospitable reception would indemnify me for the toils and hardships of the day.    From Wordnik.com.  [Agnes Grey] Reference

The tunnels, however, were reinforced longitudinally by twisted steel rods in the invert and roof, and by transverse rods where there was a superincumbent load on the tunnels; it might also be noted that on the.    From Wordnik.com.  [Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad, The North River Division. Paper No. 1151] Reference

The lower parts of a construction tend to spread out as they give way under the weight of the superincumbent masses; if they are very much broader than the latter, they give the impression of great weight carried.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Principles of Aesthetics] Reference

Then she felt a hand trying to remove her superincumbent head-gear.    From Wordnik.com.  [Under the Waves Diving in Deep Waters] Reference

It is like the springs of a carriage which are pressed flat by the superincumbent weight.    From Wordnik.com.  [He Knew He Was Right] Reference

Are storms the effect of this unequal charge of the different superincumbent strata of air?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2] Reference

The branches of the palm were remarkable for their flexibility, while no superincumbent weight could break them.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Metamorphoses of Ovid Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes and Explanations] Reference

Phantasms, not God-Veracities but Devil-Falsities, down to the very lowest stratum, -- which now, by such superincumbent weight of.    From Wordnik.com.  [Past and Present Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII.] Reference

At the level of the sea, a man of ordinary bulk and stature is pressed upon by a superincumbent weight of 30,000 pounds or 13.5 tons.    From Wordnik.com.  [Himalayan Journals — Complete] Reference

Luckily the little hollow which received the pair was of sand, that yielded to the superincumbent weight, half burying them without further injury.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers] Reference

They must start near enough to the surface that the whole superincumbent mass may cave and give crushing weight, or the immediately overhanging roof must easily cave.    From Wordnik.com.  [Principles of Mining Valuation, Organization and Administration] Reference

The sarcophagus was in the uppermost chamber, above which the superincumbent weight was relieved by open spaces and a species of rudimentary arch of Λ-shape (Fig.  2).    From Wordnik.com.  [A Text-Book of the History of Architecture Seventh Edition, revised] Reference