Other forms: toppled, toppling, topples
To topple is to fall over from an upright position. Topple over, toppled the statue, the pile toppled.
It needs height and a narrow base, which is why a tall stack topples and a low one slides. Figuratively, toppling a government or a leader is removing them from power, and the metaphor of a statue coming down is often literal in that case. Note that the word is a frequentative of top.
1verbtoppleTo fall over from an upright position.
“The old tree toppled over in the storm and landed across the road.”
2verbremoveTo remove a leader from power.
“Mass protests toppled the dictator after thirty years in power.”
topple is a falling over.
TOPple → down it comes from the TOP
It stood at the top for years, and then went over in one moment.
hooks ontotop
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
top
English, today
topple
From top + -le. top comes 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