It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me w
ith excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand. In the excerpt above, the word surmounted most nearly means
In this excerpt, the narrator describes the other character, Fortunato. This man was wearing "motley" (a piece of clothing made up of different colors) and a conical cap and bell "surmounting" his head. In this case, the verb surmount means to be on top of something tall or just on top of something.
Sometimes surmount can mean to overcome a difficulty, to deal successfully with an obstacle.
