top 
What is this 
That . . wears upon his baby brow the round 
And (op of sovereignty? Shale., Macbeth, iv. 1. 89. 
He was a Roman, and the '/' "f honour. 
Fletcher (and another), False Due, ii. 1. 
The lap of woman ! all her sex in abstract ! 
B. Jonxm, Devil is an Ass, iv. 1. 
6384 
the top tool is held above the work, and is struck with a 
sledge by another workman. Top burton. See burton. 
Top cover, the upper or front cover of a book. I F.ng. ] 
Top edge, the head or upper edge of a book. [Eng.] 
Top rib, in gun-maMmj. Seerii>l,2(0. Top side. Same 
as top cover. 
top 1 (top), i'.; pret. and pp. topped, ppr. topping. 
[<to;>l,M. Cl. top 8 , .] I. trans. 1. To put a 
9. Xaiit., a sort of platform surrounding the 
head of the lower mast on all sides. It serves to 
extend the topmast-shrouds. The tops are named after the 
i . -prctivc masts to which they belong, as maintop, foretop, 
iiiul mizzentop. See cut under lubber. 
In the morning we descried from the (op eight sail ferent or richer color: as, to top indigo with a 
astern of us. Winthrop, Hist. New England, 1. 6. bright aniline, to give force and brilliancy. 
10 The cover of a carriage. In coaches it is a 3. To place and fasten upon the back margin 
permanent cover; in barouches and landaus it is a double o f (a saw-blade) a stiffening piece, or a gage 
calash ; in gigs, phaetons, etc., it is a calash. f or limiting the depth of a kerf ; back (a saw). 
11. That part of a cut gem which is bet ween the A T !, tv,a t^ nf 
girdle or extreme margin and the table or flat 
face. E. H. Enif/lit. 12. pi. Buttons washed 
or plated with gold, silver, tin, etc., on the face 
or front side only : when the whole is thus treat- 
ed, they are called all-overs. [Trade-name. ] 
13. Same as top-boot : especially in the plural : 
as, a pair of tops. [Colloq.] 
To stand in a bar, ... in a green coat, knee cords, and 
topg. Dickens, Pickwick, xiv. 
It was a kind of festive occasion, and the parties were 
attired accordingly. Mr. Weller's tops were newly cleaned, 
and his dress was arranged with peculiar care. 
Dickens, Pickwick, Iv. 
top on; cap; crown. 
Her more famous monntaines are the aforesaid Hsemus, 
[and] Rhodope still topi with snow. Sandijs, Travailes, p. 33. 
2. Ill tlyciiiy. to cover or wash over with a dif- 
4. To reach the top of. 
Wind about till you have topp'd the hill. 
Sir J. Denham, Prudence. 
5. To rise above or beyond ; surmount. 
The moon . . . like an enemy broke upon me, topping 
the eastward ridge of rock. 
R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, xxxvii. 
The sun was just topping the maples. 
The Century, XXVI. 376. 
6. To pass over; leap; clear. 
Many a green dog would endeavour to take a mouse in- 
stead of topping the brambles, thereby possibly splitting 
a claw. The Field, March 19, 1887. (Encyc. Diet.) 
To surpass ; 
And my Invention thrive, Edmund the base 
Shall (op the legitimate. Shale.. Lear, i. 2. 21. 
tip ; also, the topping or mounting at the end of 
this piece,usually made of bell-metal, agate, car- e g ; 
uelian, etc. -15 A method of cheating at dice 8 To take off the top of. Specifically - (o) To re- 
in vogue about the beginning of the eighteenth moye the top or end from < a p i ant ) ; especially, to crop, as 
century. Both dice seemed to be put into the box, but 
'.n reality one was kept at the top of the box between the 
Ingers of the person playing. At the top of one's lungs. 
i: 
'Seeiung. Bowtop'. See SMI*. Captains Of tops. See 
captain. from top to toe, from head to foot; hence, 
wholly ; entirely ; throughout. 
Be-hold me how that I ame tourne, 
For I ame rente /ro tope to to. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 95. 
Lop and top. See lop?. On top Of. superimposed on. 
To cry on (or in) the top of t , to speak with greater force 
or importance than ; overrule. 
It was as I received it, and others, whose judgements 
in such matters cried in the top of mine an excellent 
play. Shale., Hamlet, ii. 2. 459. 
Top and butt, in ship-building, a method of working long 
tapering planks, by laying their broad and narrow ends 
alternately fore-and-aft, lining a piece off every broad end 
the whole length of the shifting. It is adopted princi- 
pally for ceiling. Sometimes used attributively : as, "(op 
andbutt . . . fashions," Thearle, Naval Arch., 213. Top 
and tail*, everything; beginning and end. 
Thou shalt . . . with thyn eres heren wel 
Top and tail, and every del. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 880. 
Top and topgallant', in complete array ; in full rig ; in 
full force. 
Captains, he cometh hitherward amain, 
Top and top-gallant, all in brave array. 
Peele, Battle of Alcazar, iii. 3. 
Top Of the tree, the highest point or position attainable ; 
the highest rank in the social scale, in a profession, or 
the like. 
My Lady Dedlock has been . . . at the top of the fashion- 
able tree. Dickens, Bleak House, ii. 
Top over tailt, heels over head ; topsyturvy. 
Happili to the hinde lie hit thanne formest, 
<fc set hire a sad strok so sore in the necke 
That sche top ouer tail tombled ouer the hacches. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2776. 
Top-road bridge. See bridge. Tops-and-bottoms, 
small rolls of dough baked, cut in halves, and then 
browned in an oven, used as food for infants. Simmonds. 
Tis said that her tops and bottoms were gilt. 
Like the oats in that Stable-yard Palace built 
For the horse of Heliogabalus. 
Hood, Miss Kilmansegg, Her JSirth. 
II. n. 1. Being at the top; uppermost; 
highest; foremost; first; chief; principal. 
These twice-six colts had pace so swift, they ran 
Upon the op-ayles of corn ears, nor bent them any whit. 
Chapman, Iliad, xx. 211. 
The fineBerinthia, one of the Top-Characters, is impu- 
dent and Profane. 
Jeremy Cottier, Short View (cd. 1698), p. 219. 
The humble ass serves the poorer sort of people, there 
being only a few of the top families in the city [of Scio] 
who use horses. Pococke, Description of the East, II. ii. 9. 
Aniline colours used alone remained in fashion for a 
short time only, but are now usefully employed as top 
colours namely, brushed in very dilute solution over 
vegetable colours. Workshop Receipts, 2d ser., p. 236. 
2. Greatest; extreme. 
Setting out at top speed, he soon overtook him. 
//. Brooke, Fool of (Duality, I. (Dorics.) 
3. Prime; good; capital: as, top ale. [Prov. 
Eng. and Scotch.] The top notch. See notch. 
Top and bottom tools, striking-tools, such as chisels or 
punches and swages. The bottom tools have generally 
square tangs to fit into the square opening in the anvil, and 
a tree or plant, by cutting off the growing top, or before 
ripening (as, in the case of tobacco, to increase the size of 
the remaining leaves, or, with maize, to hasten the ripen- 
ing, etc.). 
What tree if it be not topped beareth any fruite ? 
Lyly, Euphues, Anat. of Wit, p. 127. 
Periauder, being consulted with how to preserve a tyr- 
anny newly usurped, . . . went into his garden and top- 
ped all the highest flowers. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 
(6) To snuff (a candle) : said also of burning oft the long 
end of a new wick. Ualliieell; De Vere. [Prov. Eng. and 
U.S.) 
Top the candle, sirrah ; methinks the light burns blue. 
MWdleton, Your Five Gallants, I. 1. 
(c) See the quotation. 
Harder tempers of steel, containing 0.7 per cent, of 
carbon and upwards, settle down after teeming, leaving a 
hollow or funnel-shaped tube or pipe at the top of the in- 
got, which requires to be broken off, or the ingot topped, 
as it is called, before working the same. 
W. H. Greenwood, Steel and Iron, p. 421. 
9. Naut., to raise one end, as of a yard or boom, 
higher than the other. 10. To hang. Tuffs 
Glossary of Tltieres' Jargon (1798). [Thieves' 
slang.] 
Thirty-six were cast for death, and only one was topped. 
Mayheu; London Labour and London Poor, III. 387. 
11. To tup; cover. Slink., Othello, v. 2. 136. 
Topping the dice. See topi, n ., 15. To top off. (a) 
To complete by putting on the top or uppermost part of: 
as. to top off a stack of hay ; hence, to finish ; put the fin- 
ishing touch to. 
A heavy sleep evolved out of sauerkraut, sausages, and 
cider, lightly topped of with a mountain of crisp waffles. 
The Century, XLI. 47. 
(ot) To take or toss off ; drink off. 
Its no heinous offence (beleeve me) for a young man to 
hunt harlots, to toppe of a canne roundly ; its no great 
fault to breake open dores. 
Terence in English (1B14). (Hares.) 
To top one's part, to do one's part with zeal and suc- 
cess ; outdo one's self. 
Well, Jenny, you topp'd your part, indeed. 
Steele, Tender Husband, v. 1. 
That politician tops his part 
Who readily can lie with art. 
Gay, The Squire and his Cur. 
To top up, to finish ; wind up ; put an end to : as, he was 
tapped up by his extravagance. {Colloq.] 
II. intrans. 1. To rise aloft; be eminent; 
tower; hence, to surpass; excel. See top- 
ping, p. a. 
But write thy best, and top ; and, in each line, 
Sir Formal's oratory will be thine. 
Dryden, MacFlecnoe, 1. 167. 
2. To be of a (specified) height or top-measure- 
ment. 
The latter was a dark chestnut with a white fetlock, 
standing full 1<> hands (while the mare scarcely topped 15). 
Laicrence, Guy Livingstone, ix. 
3. To incline or fall with the top foremost; 
topple. 
My attention was first called to a movement of the snow 
by noticing that the snow walls were leaving the building, 
as I at first supposed, by a topping movement. 
Science, X. 180. 
toparcbia 
Always pruning, always cropping? 
Is her brightness still obscur'd? 
Ever dressing, ever tapping ? 
Always curing, never cur'd? 
Quarles, Emblems. (Nares.) 
Tq top over tailt, to turn heels over head. See top over 
tail, under (opl , n. 
To tumble ouer and ouer, to toppe ouer tayle, . . . may be 
also holesome for the body. 
Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber), p. 47. (Dairies.) 
To top up or off. (a) To finish ; end up. [Colloq.] 
Four engage to go half-price to the play at night, and 
(op up with oysters. Dickens, Bleak House, xi. 
(b) See the quotation. 
Strawberry pottles are often half cabbage leaves, a few 
tempting strawberries being displayed on the top of the 
pottle. "Topping p,"said a fruit dealer to me, " is the 
principal thing. . . . You ask any coster that knows the 
world, and he'll tell you that all the salesmen in the mar- 
kets tops up. It 's only making the best of it." 
Mayheur, London Labour and London Poor, I. 61. 
top 1 * (top), prep. [ME. toppe; short for on top 
of.'] Above. 
This we bezechith toppe alle thing, thet thin holy name, 
thet is thi guode los, thi knanlechinge, thi beleaue, by 
y-confermed ine ous. Ayentnte of Inwyt(E. E. T. S.), p. 106. 
top 2 (top), v. ; pret. and pp. topped, ppr. topping. 
[Sc. also tope; < ME. toppen, lit. 'catch by the 
top'; < topi, . : S ee top 1 .] I.t ititrans. To 
wrestle; strive. 
Toppyn, or fechte by the nekke [var. f eyten, fysth, fythe, 
feightyn by the nek], colluctor. Prompt. Pan., p. 496. 
As hi wexe hi toppede ofte ther nas hituene hem no love. 
Poems and Lines of the Saints (ed. Furnivall), xxiv. 15. 
II. trans. To oppose; resist. Jamieson. 
[Scotch.] 
The King nominated one day, in face of parliament, [the 
Earl of Mortoun] ; while Argyle topes this nomination, as 
of a man unmeet. Baillie, Letters, I. 390. 
top 2 t (top), n.- [< top'*, v.] Opposition; strug- 
gle; conflict. 
And the nations were angry : The world was in tops with 
Christ's church, having hatred against his people. 
Durham, Expos, of the Revelation, xi. 18. 
[(Jamieson, under tope.) 
top 3 (top), n. [Early mod. E. also toppe; < ME. 
to/i, prob. < MD. top, toppe, var. (due to confu- 
sion with top, point, summit) of dop, doppe, a 
top (cf. MD. dol, var. of tol, D. tol, a top), = 
OHG. topf, to/, topfo, MHG. topf, toppe, top. 
wheel, G. (dial.) topf = Dan. top, a top, spin- 
ning-top ; perhaps so called from a fancied re- 
semblance to a pot,< MHG. topf, tupfen, G. topf 
(obs.), topf en, pot ; cf. G. (dial.) dipfi,dupfi, dip- 
pen, an iron kettle with three legs, prob. con- 
nected with AS. dcop, G. tief, etc., deep: see 
deep. The notion that the top is so called "be- 
the operator holds the work upon the bottom tool, while 4f. To preen or prune one's self. 
1H '111 I , 1I> IllCVMDlDbOCMI " lD \ " 
topf, a top (toy), G. eopf, a tuft, crest) ; more- 
over, a top does not spin on its top.] 1. A 
children's toy of conical, ovoid, or circular 
shape, whether solid or hollow, sometimes of 
wood with a point of metal, sometimes entirely 
of metal, made to whirl on its point by the 
rapid unwinding of a string wound about it, or 
by lashing with a whip, or by utilizing the pow- 
er of a spring. All tops are more precisely called spin 
ning-tops, conical ones peg-tops, and those that are lashed 
whip-tops. 
The chekker was choisly there chosen the first, 
The draghtes, the dyse, and other dregh gaumes, . . . 
The tables, the (op, tregetre also. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1624. 
A toppe can I set, and dryve it In his kynde. 
Sir T. More, Pageant, Int. to Utopia, p. Ixv. 
The (op was used in remote times by the Grecian boys. 
It is mentioned by Suidas, and . . . was well known at 
Rome in the days of Virgil, and with us as early at least 
as the fourteenth century. 
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 491. 
2. In rope-making, a conical block of wood with 
longitudinal grooves 
on its surface, in which 
the strands of the rope 
slide in the process 
of twisting Gyroscop- 
ic top. See gyroscopic. - 
Parish top. Seeporinft. 
Top and scourge, a whip- 
top and its whip. HaUiu-ett. 
toparch (to'park), n. 
[= F. toparque, < L. to- 
parclia, < Gr. roirdpxi/r., 
the governor of a dis- Top for Rope . making . 
trict, < TOTTOC, a place, 
+ apxmv, rule.] The governor of a district or 
toparchy. 
The prince and toparch of that country. Fuller. 
toparchia (to-piir'ki-a), n. [L.: see toparclty.] 
Same as toparchy. Jtlieneeum, No. 3267, p. 743. 
