tope

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To drink (liquor) habitually and excessively or engage in such drinking.
2. n. A small, rough-skinned, widely distributed shark (Galeorhinus galeus) having an elongated conical snout.
3. n. See stupa.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An Australasian shark, Galeus australis. It differs somewhat from Galeus galeus, the tope of Great Britaiu. In Australia also called school-shark. E. E. Morris, Austral English.
2. To drink alcoholic liquors to excess, especially to do so habitually.
3. Same as top.
4. n. A kind of shark, the miller's-dog or penny-dog, Galeorhinus galeus, or Galeus canis; also, one of several related sharks of small size, some of them also called dogfish. The species to which the name originally pertained is found on the European coast. There are others in various parts of the world, as the oil-shark of California, G. zyopterus. See also cnt under Galeorhinus.
5. n. The European wren.
6. n. The popular name for a type of Buddhist monument, which may be considered as a tumulus of masonry, of domical or tower-like form, many specimens of which occur in India and southeastern Asia, intended for the preservation of relics or the commemoration of some event. When for the former purpose the tope is called a dagoba, when for the latter a stupa, the term tope having reference to the external shape only. The oldest topes are dome-shaped, and rest on a base which is cylindrical, quadrangular, or polygonal, rising perpendicularly or in terraces. A distinctive feature of the tope is the apical structure, which is in the shape of an open parasol and is known as a tee. One of the most important surviving topes is the principal one of a group at Sanchi in Bhopal, Central India. The tumulus is domical, somewhat less than a hemisphere, 106 feet in diameter and 42 feet in height. On the top is a flat space, In the center of which once stood the tee. A most elaborately carved stone railing surrounds this tope. In topes serving to preserve relics these were deposited in metal boxes or in chambers in the solid masonry of the tope. See dagoba, stupa.
7. n. In India, a grove or clump of trees: as, a toddy- tope; a cane -tope.

Wiktionary

1. n. A small, grey, European shark, Galeorhinus galeus, that has rough skin and a long snout.
2. v. archaic To drink excessively; to get drunk.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A moundlike Buddhist sepulcher, or memorial monument, often erected over a Buddhist relic.
2. n. India A grove or clump of trees.
3. n. (Zoöl.) A small shark or dogfish (Galeorhinus galeus syn. Galeus galeus), native of Europe, but found also on the coasts of California and Tasmania; -- called also toper, oil shark, miller's dog, and penny dog.
4. n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The wren.
5. v. To drink hard or frequently; to drink strong or spiritous liquors to excess.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a dome-shaped shrine erected by Buddhists
2. v. drink excessive amounts of alcohol; be an alcoholic