top

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The uppermost part, point, surface, or end.
2. n. The part farthest from a given reference point: took a jump shot from the top of the key.
3. n. The crown of the head: from top to toe.
4. n. The part of a plant, such as a rutabaga, that is above the ground.
5. n. Something, such as a lid or cap, that covers or forms an uppermost part.
6. n. A garment worn on the upper half of the body, especially a sweater or knit shirt.
7. n. Nautical A platform enclosing the head of each mast of a sailing ship, to which the topmast rigging is attached.
8. n. The highest degree, pitch, or point; the peak, acme, or zenith: "It had come at a time when he was not feeling at the top of his form” ( Anthony Powell).
9. n. The highest position or rank: at the top of his profession.
10. n. A person in this position.
11. n. Games The highest card or cards in a suit or hand.
12. n. The best part.
13. n. The earliest part or beginning: She played the piece again, from the top.
14. n. Baseball The first half of an inning.
15. n. Sports A stroke that lands above the center of a ball, as in golf or tennis, giving it a forward spin.
16. n. Sports A forward spin on a ball resulting from such a stroke.
17. adj. Situated at the top: the top shelf.
18. adj. Of the highest degree, quality, rank, or amount: in top form; the top ten bestsellers.
19. adj. In a position of preeminence: the top historian in her department.
20. v. To form, furnish with, or serve as a top.
21. v. To reach the top of.
22. v. To go over the top of.
23. v. To exceed or surpass.
24. v. To be at the head of: She topped her class.
25. v. To remove the top or uppermost part from; crop: topped the fruit trees.
26. v. Sports To strike the upper part of (a ball), giving it forward spin.
27. v. Sports To make (a stroke) in this way.
28. v. To make a finish, an end, or a conclusion.
29. top off To fill up (a container), especially when it is almost full to begin with.
30. top off To finish up.
31. top out To put the framework for the top story on (a building).
32. top out To fill up (a ship, for example).
33. top out To cease rising: Interest rates topped out at 16 percent.
34. top out Informal To give up one's career just as one becomes highly successful.
35. idiom. off the top of (one's) head Informal In an impromptu way: She recited the poem off the top of her head.
36. idiom. on top At the highest point or peak.
37. idiom. on top In a dominant, controlling, or successful position.
38. idiom. on top of Informal In control of.
39. idiom. on top of Informal Fully informed about: a senator who is always on top of the issues.
40. idiom. on top of Informal In addition to; besides: On top of this, several other benefits are being offered.
41. idiom. on top of Informal Following closely on; coming immediately after: Hail came on top of a violent thunderstorm.
42. idiom. on top of the world Informal In a position of great happiness or success.
43. idiom. over the top Surpassing a goal or quota.
44. idiom. over the top Excessively expressive or dramatic.
45. idiom. over the top Over the breastwork, as an attack in trench warfare: "a whole battalion, onto the beachhead, over the top” ( Margaret Atwood).
46. n. A toy having one end tapered to a point, allowing it to be spun, as by suddenly pulling a string wound around it.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A tuft or crest on the apex or summit of anything, as a helmet, the head, etc.; hence, the hair of the head; especially, the forelock.
2. n. Any bunch of hair, fibers, or filaments; specifically, in woolen-manuf., a bundle of long-staple combed wool-slivers, ready for the spinner, and weighing 1½ pounds.
3. n. The crown of the head, or the upper surface of the head back of the forehead; the vertex or sinciput.
4. n. The highest or uppermost part of anything; the most elevated end or point; the summit; the apex.
5. n. Specifically— The head or upper part of a plant, especially the above-ground part of plants yielding root-crops: as, potato- tops, turnip -tops; in pharmacy, the newer growing parts of a plant.
6. n. The upper part of a shoe. Compare def. 13 and top-boot.
7. n. The upper end or source; head waters, as of a river.
8. n. The upper side; the surface.
9. n. plural The collection of a few copies of each sheet of a printed book placed on the top of a pile of such printed sheets.
10. n. That which is first or foremost. The beginning: noting time.
11. n. That which comes first in the natural or the accepted order; the first or upper part; the head: as, the top of a page; the top of a column of figures.
12. n. The most advanced or prominent part; the highest part, place, rank, grade, or the like.
13. n. The crowning-point.
14. n. The highest point or degree; pinnacle; zenith; climax.
15. n. The highest example, type, or representative; chief; crown; consummation; acme.
16. n. Nautical, 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 respective masts to which they belong, as maintop, foretop, and mizzentop. See cut under lubber.
17. n. The cover of a carriage. In coaches it is a permanent cover; in barouches and landaus it is a double calash; in gigs, phaëtons, etc., it is a calash.
18. n. That part of a cut gem which is between the girdle or extreme margin and the table or flat face.
19. n. plural Buttons washed or plated with gold, silver, tin, etc., on the face or front side only: when the whole is thus treated, they are called all-overs.
20. n. Same as top-boot: especially in the plural: as, a pair of tops.
21. n. The end-piece of a jointed fishing-rod; the tip; also, the topping or mounting at the end of this piece, usually made of bell-metal, agate, carnelian, etc.
22. n. A method of cheating at dice in vogue about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Both dice seemed to be put into the box, but in reality one was kept at the top of the box between the fingers of the person playing.
23. Being at the top; uppermost; highest; foremost; first; chief; principal.
24. Greatest; extreme.
25. Prime; good; capital: as, top ale.
26. To put a top on; cap; crown.
27. In dyeing, to cover or wash over with a different or richer color: as, to top indigo with a bright aniline, to give force and brilliancy.
28. To place and fasten upon the back margin of (a saw-blade) a stiffening piece, or a gage for limiting the depth of a kerf; back (a saw).
29. To reach the top of.
30. To rise above or beyond; surmount.
31. To pass over; leap; clear.
32. To surpass; outdo.
33. To take off the top of. Specifically— To remove the top or end from (a plant); especially, to crop, as 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 ripening, etc.).
34. To snuff (a candle): said also of burning off the long end of a new wick.
35. See the quotation.
36. Nautical, to raise one end, as of a yard or boom, higher than the other.
37. To hang.
38. To tup; cover.
39. To take or toss off; drink off.
40. To rise aloft; be eminent; tower; hence, to surpass; excel. See topping, p. a.
41. To be of a (specified) height or top-measurement.
42. To incline or fall with the top foremost; topple.
43. To preen or prune one's self.
44. See the quotation.
45. Above.
46. To wrestle; strive.
47. To oppose; resist.
48. n. Opposition; struggle; conflict.
49. n. 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 power of a spring. All tops are more precisely called spinning-tops, conical ones peg-tops, and those that are lashed whip-tops.
50. n. 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.

Wiktionary

1. n. this sense?) That part of an object furthest away in the opposite direction from that in which an unsupported object would fall.
2. n. The part viewed, or intended to be viewed, nearest the edge of the visual field normally occupied by the uppermost visible objects.
3. n. A lid, cap or cover of a container.
4. n. A garment worn to cover the torso.
5. n. A child’s spinning toy; a spinning top.
6. n. nautical A framework at the top of a ship's mast to which rigging is attached
7. n. baseball The first half of an inning, during which the home team fields and the visiting team bats.
8. n. BDSM A dominant partner in a BDSM relationship or roleplay.
9. n. LGBT, slang A gay man who likes take an active sexual role rather than a passive role (e.g. to penetrate in anal sex rather than be penetrated).
10. n. physics A top quark.
11. n. The leaders in a competition
12. v. To cover on the top or with a top.
13. v. To cut or remove the top (as of a tree)
14. v. To excel, to surpass, to beat.
15. v. To be in the lead, to be at number one position (of).
16. v. UK, slang To commit suicide, (rare) to murder.
17. v. BDSM To be the dominant partner in a BDSM relationship or roleplay.
18. v. slang, gay sexuality To be the partner who penetrates in anal sex.
19. adj. informal Best; of the highest quality or rank.
20. adj. informal Very good, of high quality.
21. adv. Rated first.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A child's toy, commonly in the form of conoid or pear, made to spin on its point, usually by drawing off a string wound round its surface or stem, the motion being sometimes continued by means of a whip.
2. n. (Rope Making) A plug, or conical block of wood, with longitudital grooves on its surface, in which the strands of the rope slide in the process of twisting.
3. n. The highest part of anything; the upper end, edge, or extremity; the upper side or surface; summit; apex; vertex; cover; lid.
4. n. The utmost degree; the acme; the summit.
5. n. The highest rank; the most honorable position; the utmost attainable place.
6. n. The chief person; the most prominent one.
7. n. The crown of the head, or the hair upon it; the head.
8. n. The head, or upper part, of a plant.
9. n. (Naut.) A platform surrounding the head of the lower mast and projecting on all sudes. It serves to spead the topmast rigging, thus strengheningthe mast, and also furnishes a convenient standing place for the men aloft.
10. n. (Wool Manuf.) A bundle or ball of slivers of comkbed wool, from which the noils, or dust, have been taken out.
11. n. rare Eve; verge; point.
12. n. The part of a cut gem between the girdle, or circumference, and the table, or flat upper surface.
13. n. Slang Top-boots.
14. n. A stroke on the top of the ball.
15. n. A forward spin given to the ball by hitting it on or near the top.
16. v. To rise aloft; to be eminent; to tower.
17. v. To predominate.
18. v. To excel; to rise above others.
19. v. (Golf) To strike a ball above the center.
20. v. (Naut.) To rise at one end, as a yard; -- usually with up.
21. v. To cover on the top; to tip; to cap; -- chiefly used in the past participle.
22. v. To rise above; to excel; to outgo; to surpass.
23. v. To rise to the top of; to go over the top of.
24. v. To take off the or upper part of; to crop.
25. v. To perform eminently, or better than before.
26. v. (Naut.) To raise one end of, as a yard, so that that end becomes higher than the other.
27. v. (Dyeing) To cover with another dye.
28. v. To put a stiffening piece or back on (a saw blade).
29. v. Cant To arrange, as fruit, with the best on top.
30. v. To strike the top of, as a wall, with the hind feet, in jumping, so as to gain new impetus; -- said of a horse.
31. v. To improve (domestic animals, esp. sheep) by crossing certain individuals or breeds with other superior.
32. v. (Naut.) To raise one end of, as a yard, so that that end becomes higher than the other.
33. v. To cut, break, or otherwise take off the top of (a steel ingot) to remove unsound metal.
34. v. (Golf) To strike (the ball) above the center; also, to make (as a stroke) by hitting the ball in this way.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. reach or ascend the top of
2. n. a garment (especially for women) that extends from the shoulders to the waist or hips
3. n. platform surrounding the head of a lower mast
4. v. be superior or better than some standard
5. n. covering for a hole (especially a hole in the top of a container)
6. v. finish up or conclude
7. n. the first half of an inning; while the visiting team is at bat
8. adj. situated at the top or highest position
9. n. a conical child's plaything tapering to a steel point on which it can be made to spin
10. n. the top or extreme point of something (usually a mountain or hill)
11. n. the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development
12. v. cut the top off
13. n. the upper part of anything
14. v. be ahead of others; be the first
15. n. a canvas tent to house the audience at a circus performance
16. v. strike (the top part of a ball in golf, baseball, or pool) giving it a forward spin
17. n. the greatest possible intensity
18. v. provide with a top or finish the top (of a structure)
19. n. the highest or uppermost side of anything
20. v. be at the top of or constitute the top or highest point
21. v. pass by, over, or under without making contact
22. v. be the culminating event