Steele, Tender Husband

1. That politician tops his part Who readily can lie with art. Gay, The Squire and his Cur. To top up, to finish; wind up; put an end to: as, he was topped up by his extravagance. [Colloq.] II. in trans. 1. To rise aloft; be eminent; tower; hence, to surpa ; excel. See top ping , p. a. But write thy best, and top ; and, in each line, Sir Formal's oratory will be thine. Dryden, MacFlecnoe, 1. 167. IMG:content-0584.png:[blocks in formation] To tumble ouer and ouer, to toppe ouer tayle ,... may be also holesome for the body. Ascham , Toxophilus (ed. Arber), p. 47. ( Davies .) To top up or off. (a) To finish; end up. [Colloq.] Four engage to go half-price to the play at night, and top up with oysters. Dickens , Bleak House, xi. (b) See the quotation. Strawberry pottles are often half cabbage leaves, few tempting strawberries being displayed on the top of the pottle. " Topping up," said a fruit dealer to me, "is the principal thing. You ask any coster that knows the world, and he'll tell you that all the salesmen in the markets tops up. It's only making the best of it." Mayhew , London Labour and London Poor, I. 61. top1+ (top), prep . [ME. toppe ; short for on top of .] Above. This we bezechith toppe alle thing, thet thin holy name, thet is thi guode los, thi knaulechinge, thi beleaue, by y-confer med ine ous. Ayenbite of Inwyt (E. E. T. S.), p. 106. top2 (top), v.; pret. and pp. topped, ppr. topping. [Sc. also tope; Toppyn , or fechte by the nekke [var. feyten, fyzth, fythe, feightyn by the nek), colluctor. Prompt . Parv., p. 496. As hi wexe hi toppede ofte ther nas bituene hem no love. Poems and Lives of the Saints (ed. Furnivall), xxiv. 15. II. trans. To oppose; resist. Jamicson. [Scotch.] The King nominated one day, in face of parliament, [the Earl of Mortoun]; while Argyle topes this nomination, as of a man unmeet,'