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Top-heavy. World English Historical Dictionary

Top-heavy. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1916, rev. 2022. Top-heavy a. Disproportionately heavy at the top; having the upper part so heavy as to overbalance the lower; hence, unstable and inclined to topple. Also transf. and fig.

1 a. 1533.  Frith, Answ. More (1829), 184. They have made it so top-heavy, that it is surely like to have a fall.

2 1641.  Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 36. That they make theire loades broade, and large, but not over high and toppe-heavy, for feare of throwinge over … the waine.

3 1647.  H. More, Song Soul, I. II. lxxvii. Top heavy was his head with earthly policy.

4 1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 81. If your Trees grow too top heavy, you must abate the Head to lighten them.

5 1862.  T. A. Trollope, Lenten Journ., xvi. 259. We were top-heavy with eight or nine great sacks of letters on the roof [of the vehicle].

6 1889.  Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 118. Do not make your picture topheavy with clouds.

7 1895.  K. Grahame, Gold. Age (1904), 20. Harold,… top-heavy with eagerness of possession, had fallen into the pond.

8   b.  Said of an intoxicated person: tipsy.

9 1687.  in Dk. Buckhm.’s Wks. (1705), II. 120. Jack was too top-heavy to escape undiscovered.

10 a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Top-heavy, Drunk.

11 1823.  T. W. L., in Hone, Every-day Bk. (1827), 11. 859. Being top-heavy with liquor, he … lost his balance.

12   Hence Top-heaviness; Top-heavyish a.

13 1853.  G. J. Cayley, Las Alforjas, II. 204. A noble top-heavyish Gothic tower.

14 1869.  Sir E. J. Reed, Iron-Clad Ships, vii. 137. To the unprofessional eye there does appear to be a ‘top-heaviness’ in armoured ships.

15 1889.  Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iii. 63. The mistaken view … that ‘top-heaviness’ was the cause of the excessive rolling.

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