Other forms: topped, tops, topping
The top of something is its highest part — the top of the stairs, the top of the page, the top of the hill where everyone stops to breathe. In the kitchen the word is a verb: to top a dish is to finish it by putting something over the surface, so you get a pizza topped with olives, a cake topped with cream, chips topped with melted cheese.
Top runs through the whole language. As an adjective it means highest or best: the top floor, top marks, the top of the class. To top a list or a chart is to be first on it — 'the song topped the charts for six weeks'. Top up means add more to what is already there: top up your phone, top up a glass, top up the oil. A top is also a piece of clothing for the upper body and the lid of a bottle or a pen. And on top of covers both above and in addition — 'on top of everything else, the car wouldn't start'.
1nounupperThe highest part or upper surface of something.~14%
“She waited for him at the top of the stairs.”
2adjectivepositionHighest in position, rank or quality.~53%
“He got top marks in the exam.”
3nounclothingA piece of clothing worn on the upper body.~24%
“She wore a blue top and jeans.”
4verbfirstTo be first or highest in a list, chart or ranking.~2%
“Their new single topped the charts in three countries.”
5verbtopTo cover the surface of food with something as a finish.~2%
“Top the soup with a spoonful of cream.”
Patterntop sth with + noun · topped with · a topping · top and tail
6nounlidA cover or lid for a bottle, jar or pen.~5%
“He left the top off the milk again.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
TOP → something on the TOP of it
Put the fruit on the top of the cake and you have topped it: the last thing on, the first thing seen.
Top has been English all along. Old English topp meant the highest part, a summit, a crest — and also a tuft of hair and the spinning toy. It came from Proto-Germanic tuppaz, 'braid, pigtail, end', which is why a pigtail and a mountain summit turn out to be the same idea: the bit that sticks out at the far end.
Proto-Germanic
*tuppaz — braid, pigtail, end
Proto-West Germanic
*topp
Old English
topp — top, highest part; summit; crest; tassel, tuft; (spinning) top, ball; a tuft or ball at the highest point of anything
Middle English
top
English, today
top
From Middle English top, toppe, from Old English topp (“top, highest part; summit; crest; tassel, tuft; (spinning) top, ball; a tuft or ball at the highest point of anything”), from Proto-West Germanic topp, from Proto-Germanic tuppaz (“braid, pigtail, end”), of unknown ultimate origin. Compare typologically apex (<< h₂ep- (“to join, attach, fasten, fit”)). Cognate with stq Top (“top”), cim sòpf (“braid”), Dutch top (“top, summit, peak”), German Topp (“top of a mast”), {{m|de|
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA