topgallant 
6386 
topgallant (top'gal"ant ; by sailors usually to- or pertaining to such trimming. Topiary work 
gal'ant), a. and . I. a. 1. Being above the is the clipping 
topman 
topmast and below the royal : applied to mast, 
sail, rigging, etc. 2f. Topping; fine. 
Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim. 
Pope, Satires of Donne, iv. 230. 
II. . 1. The topgallant mast, sail, or rigging . 
of a ship. topic .{top'i 
The various collections have been scientifically and 
topically classified and arranged. 
Pop. Set. Mo., XXVIII. 717. 
A goodly ship with banners bravely dight, 
And flag in her top-gaUant, I espide. 
Spenser, Visions of the World's Vanity, 1. 100. 
2. Figuratively, any elevated part, place, etc. 
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair; 
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy 
Must be my convoy in the secret night. 
Shak., E. and J., ii. 4. 202. 
Rolling topgallantsalL See rolling. lov and top- 
gallant. See top'. Topgallant-bulwarks. See quar- 
ter-board.- Topgallant-forecastle. See .forecastle. 
Topgallant-shrouds. See shrouds. 
top-graining (top'gra/'ning), n. An additional 
coating of color, either in distemper or in oil, 
put over the first coat of graining after it is 
dry. 
toph (tof), re. In sury., same as tophus. 
tophaceous (to-fa'shius), a. [<.\oph + -aceous.'] 
Pertaining to a toph or tophus ; gritty ; sandy : 
as, a tophaceous concretion. 
It [milk] differs from a vegetable emulsion by coagulat- 
ing into a curdy mass with acids, which chyle and vege- 
table emulsions will not. Acids mixed with them pre- 
cipitate a tophaceous chalky matter, but not a chyly 
substance. Arbuthnot, Aliments, IV. ii. 4. 
top-hamper (top'ham"per), n. Naut. : (a) Any 
unnecessary weight, either aloft or about the 
upper decks. 
So encumbered with top-hamper, so over-weighted in 
proportion to their draught of water. 
Motley. (Imp. Diet.) 
(b) The light upper sails and their gear, (c) 
The whole of the rigging and sails of a ship. 
[Rare.] 
top-hampered (top'ham"perd), a. Having too 
much weight aloft; hence, top-heavy, 
top-heaviness (top'hev"i-nes), n. The state 
of being ^top-heavy. Jour. Franklin Inst.. 
CXXVI. 178. 
top-heavy (top'hev'i), a. 1. Having the top 
disproportionately heavy ; over-weighted at the 
top. 
Like trees that broadest sprout, 
Their own top-heavy state grubs up their root. 
Chapman, Byron's Conspiracy, iii. 1. 
2. Figuratively, lacking fitness of proportions; 
liable to fall or fail. 
clipping and trimming of trees and shrubs 
into regular or fantastic shapes. 
I was lead to a pretty garden, planted with hedges of tOPM-follOt (top lk-fo"ho), n. A commonplace- 
alaternus, having at the entrance a skreene at an exceed- book. 
ig height, accurately cutt in topiary worke. An English concordance and a topic folio, the gatherings 
and savings of a sober graduatship, a Harmony and a 
Catena, treading the constant round of certain common 
Teopagitica. 
**"'<*. 
Evelyn, Diary, March 25, 1644. 
n. mid . [I. a. Formerly also 
. . 
e ; < F. topique = Hp. topico = Pg. 
plcus, local, < Gr. 
It. topico, topic, local (in med. use), < NL. to- topincht (to-pinch'), v. t. [A sham word, in- 
,,; m , !! / n vented by editors of Shakspere as a compound 
- t- pinch, and defined " to pinch 
proper reading is simply to 
s of to with an infinitive after 
let occur in Shakspere elsewhere (Hamlet, iv. 
6. 11), and instances of to with an infinitive 
after other verbs with which to does not now 
usually appear abound in Shakspere and his 
contemporaries. The prefix to-, on the other 
hand, was obsolete in Shakspere's time, and it 
was never used "intensively" in such a sense 
as ' severely.'] An erroneous form of to pinch. 
See the etymology. 
Then let them all encircle him about, 
And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight 
Shak., M. W. ofW.,iv. 4. 57. 
topiqttcs, = Sp. topica = Pg. it, topica, < L. 'to- 
pica, neut. p, the title of a work of Aristotle, 
< Gr. roTcum (TO. romad, the books concerning 
Tdiroi, or common places), neut. pi. of TOTTUOJT, 
pertaining to a place: see L] I. a. Local: 
same as topical. 
O all ye Topick Gods, that do inhabit here. 
Drayton, Polyolbion, xxx. 221. 
The places ought, before the application of those topicke 
medicines, to be well prepared with the razonr. 
Holland, tr. of 1'liny, xxix. 6. 
II. (. 1. In logic and rhet., a common place 
erations from which probable arguments can 
be drawn. According to the opinion of some writers, 
the statements of Aristotle are only consistent with mak- 
(which see, under common); a class of consid- topknot (top'not), n. 1. Any knot tuft or 
crest worn or growing on the head: applied 
to any egret, crest, or tuft of feathers on the 
head of a bird, the hair on the too of the human 
sas^ass^^s^^s?rte s T e h at head ;, ? ^f^ * w^ffi oraMomt 
of an argument." This is not very explicit, and the word lor tlle head, etc.; specifically, a bow, as of 
ribbon, forming a part of the head-dress of 
women in the seventeenth century. 
has not commonly been used with a very rigid accuracy 
In logic or rhetoric. The chief topics concern the argu- 
ments from notation, conjugates, definition, genus, spe- 
cies, whole, part, cause, effect, subject, adjunct, disparates, 
contraries, relates, privatives, contradictories, greater, less, 
equals, similars, dissimilars, and testimony ; but different 
logicians enumerate the topics differently. 
The great arguments of Christianity against the prac- 
tice of sin are not drawn from any uncertain Topicks, or 
nice and curious speculations. 
Stillingfleet, Sermons, II. iii. 
2. The subject of a discourse, argument, or lit- 
erary composition, or the subject of any dis- 
tinct part of a discourse, etc.; any matter 
treated of : now the usual meaning of the word. 
It often happens . . . that the poet and the senate of 
Rome have both chosen the same topic to flatter then- em- 
peror upon, and have sometimes fallen upon the same 
thought. Addison, Ancient Medals, i. 
Deem'st thou not our later time 
Yields topic meet for classic rhyme? 
Scott, Marmion, iii., Int. 
3. In med., a remedy locally applied. 
Amongst topics or outward medicines, none are more 
We had that, among other laudable fashions, from Lon- 
don. I think it came over with your mode of wearing high 
topknots. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, i. 1. 
It is undoubtedly from hence [the Danish language] that 
the Bride-Favours, or the Top-Knots at Marriages, which 
were considered as Emblems of the Ties of Duty and Af- 
fection between the Bride and her Spouse, have been de- 
Bourne's Pop. Antig. (1777), p. 349. 
That fine gentleman . . . whose thick topknot of wavy 
2. 
he much-quoted Gallio. 
George Eliot, Felix Holt, xxxviii. 
t\ flatfish, Phrynorhonibus unimaculatits, or 
, 
Bloch's topknot, and some related species: so 
called from a long filament on the head. Some 
of the topknots are of the same genus as the turbot, as 
Eckstrom's, Rhombus nonegicus. and Muller's. R. nunc- 
tatus. 
3. One of any of the breeds of domestic hens 
which have a crest. Miller's topknot. Same as 
mear-dab. 
loM B te'aS e Med ba< ^S^^ilSta e ' llln * l '* t *" Ilm " preciou8 thau baths - Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 4is. topknotted (top'nof'ed), . Adorned with 
,j: wor men aie giaued, vary- Transcendental touic. See tranRc.eiule.ntnl. =Svn o bows and tonknots. dewm*. Flint. Rilaa Mai.. 
3. Drunk; tipsy. Leland. [Slang.] 
Tophet (to'fet), M. [< Heb. topheth, lit. a place 
to be spit on, < tiipli, spit.] A place situated 
at the southeastern extremity of Gehenna, or 
Valley of Hinnom, to the south of Jerusalem. 
It was there that the idolatrous Jews worshiped the fire- 
gods and sacrificed their children. In consequence of 
these abominations the whole valley became the common 
laystall of the city, and symbolical of the place of torment 
in a future life. 
See 
_ gyn> 
+ < 
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
ilton, P. L., i. 404. 
, ope en 
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell. 
Mil ' 
tophi, ;i. Plural of tophus. 
top-honorst (top'on"orz), n. Topsails. [Rare.] 
As our high Vessels pass their wat'ry Way, 
Let all the naval World due Homage pay ; 
With hasty Reverence their Top-honours lower. 
or pertaining to a place or locality ; especially, 
limited to a particular spot; local. 
The men of Archenfeld in Herefordshire claimed by 
custom to lead the van-guard ; but surely this priviledge 
was topical, and confined to the Welsh wars. 
Fuller, Worthies, II. 145. 
He was now intending to visite Staffordshire, and, as he 
had of Oxfordshire, to give us the natural, topical politi- 
cal, and mechanical history. Evelyn, Diary, July 8, 1676. 
The topical application of the artificial alizarine colours. 
Workshop Receipts, 2d ser., p. 215. 
2. Specifically, in med., pertaining or applied 
to a particular part of the body; local. 
He is robust and healthy, and his change of colour was 
bows and topknots. George Eliot, Silas Mar- 
ner, xi. 
1. Of top-lantern (top'lan'tern), n. Naut., a large 
lantern carried in the mizzentop of a flag-ship, 
from which a light is displayed as a designa- 
tion on the admiral's ship. 
lopless (top'les), a. [< top^ + -less.'] Having 
no top; immeasurably high; lofty; preemi- 
nent; exalted. 
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, 
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium ? 
Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, xiv. 
Make their strengths totter, and their topless fortunes 
Unroot, and reel to ruin ! Fletcher, Bonduca, iii. 1. 
Topless honours be bestow'd on thee. 
Chapman, Blind Beggar of Alexandria. 
not accompanied with any sensible disease, either general top-light (top'lit), . A light kept in the top 
or top,cal. Jeferson, Notes on Virginia (1787), p. 120. of a ship fo? signaling or for the use of the 
tor the most part, however, in this country, physicians topmen. 
Prior, Carmen Seculare, nooV'stl'se. ha , ve abandoned severe topical measures, limiting them- ton-liniriir Cton'li"Tiin<r1 , v/..,* . t,,\ TI, 
tonhim rto'fns'i r,l /,!) i K\ r?i selves to antiseptic and soothing applications. spp^linmg (top 11 mng), n. Aaut.: (a) The 
TOpnu .to^tus), ., pi. tophi (-fi). [< L. tophus, Austin TOnff Diphtheria (Amer. Cvc.1. hmn g on the after part of the topsail, to pre- 
vent the top-rim from chafing the topsail. (6) 
A platform of thin board nailed upon the up- 
per part of the crosstrees on a vessel's top. 
Austin Flint, Diphtheria (Amer. Cyc.). 
3. Pertaining to or proceeding from a topic, or 
tilaginous surface of the^tl" andTn The" ^ S Ty f ar ^ lm ents; hence, merely proba- 
v,;^.; f iu- . ble, as an argument. 
*, sandstone : see tufa, tuff 3.} A concretion 
of calcareous matter which forms on the car- 
, 
pinna of the ear, in gout ; a gouty deposit. 
topi topee (to-pe'), n. In India, a hat or cap. 
- Sola or solar topi. See solas. 
topia (to'pi-a), 
Evidences of fact can be no more than topical and prob- 
able - Sir M. Hale. 
, U. fi 
[L., landscape-gardening 4 - Pertaining to a subject of discourse, com- The ecclesiastical [party] who do the toploftical talking, 
*. -i / rnaifi/^Ti ma tC& ttit . 1 i 1.1. _ .1 _ _i > and make the inflammatory speeches in the Tabernacle. 
The Congregationalist, Dec. 17, 1879. 
landscape-painting, neut. pi. (sc. opera) of *to- position, or the like ; concerned with a partic- 
pius, < topos, < Gr. r6iroc, a place : see topic ] ular to P ic ! specifically, dealing with topics of 
A fanciful style of mural decoration, general- curren t or local interest, 
ly consisting of landscapes of a very heteroge- . Conversation ... was ... ever taking new turns, branch- 
neous character, resembling those of the Chi- 
nese, much used in ancient Roman houses 
topiarian (to-pi-a'ri-au), a. [< L. ' 
piary, + -an.] Of, pertaining to, 
topiary work. 
Clipped yews and hollies, and all the pedantries of the 
Kingsley, Westward Ho, vii. 
topiary (to'pi-a-ri), a. [< L. topiarius, an or- 
ing into topical surprises, and at all turns and on every 
topic was luminous, high, edifying, full. 
J. Jtorley, Burke, p. 120. 
with beer and tobacco, the comic man 
toploftiness (top'16f"ti-nes), 
ter of being toplofty. [ 
(top'loFti), a. 
The charac- 
. . U. S.] 
,. ... ., Having a high top ; 
hence, figuratively, pompous; bombastic; in- 
flated; pretentious: as, toplofty airs; toplofty 
speeches. [Colloq., U. S.] 
80118 and SSSSSfiSft !^, !-. ?f e ^i 
Topical coloring, in calico-printing, the application of 
color to limited and determined parts of the cloth, as dis- 
- 1 .'. 1 fi!l!!!! ed ' rom <*?. dyeing of the whole. Topical re- 
sawing; a 
T ?' ' PL *SC^22?' ) l. [< 
The man who Stands above 
top-sawyer.- 2. Naut., a man 
