| top | 1. To cover on the top; to tip; to cap; chiefly used in the past participle. "Like moving mountains topped with snow." (Waller) "A mount Of alabaster, topped with golden spires." (Milton) 2. To rise above; to excel; to outgo; to surpass. "Topping all others in boasting." (Shak) "Edmund the base shall top the legitimate." (Shak) 3. To rise to the top of; to go over the top of. "But wind about till thou hast topped the hill." (Denham) 4. To take off the or upper part of; to crop. "Top your rose trees a little with your knife." (Evelyn) 5. To perform eminently, or better than before. "From endeavoring universally to top their parts, they will go universally beyond them." (Jeffrey) 6. To raise one end of, as a yard, so that that end becomes higher than the other. To top off, to complete by putting on, or finishing, the top or uppermost part of; as, to top off a stack of hay; hence, to complete; to finish; to adorn. 1. A child's toy, commonly in the form of a conoid or pear, made to spin on its point, usually by drawing off a string wound round its surface or stem, the motion being sometimes continued by means of a whip. 2. A plug, or conical block of wood, with longitudital grooves on its surface, in which the strands of the rope slide in the process of twisting. Origin: CF. OD. Dop, top, OHG, MNG, & dial. G. Topf; perhaps akin to G. Topf a pot. 1. The highest part of anything; the upper end, edge, or extremity; the upper side or surface; summit; apex; vertex; cover; lid; as, the top of a spire; the top of a house; the top of a mountain; the top of the ground. "The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven doth hold." (Milton) 2. The utmost degree; the acme; the summit. "The top of my ambition is to contribute to that work." (Pope) 3. The highest rank; the most honorable position; the utmost attainable place; as, to be at the top of one's class, or at the top of the school. "And wears upon hisbaby brow the round And top of sovereignty." (Shak) 4. The chief person; the most prominent one. "Other . . . Aspired to be the top of zealots." (Milton) 5. The crown of the head, or the hair upon it; the head. "From top to toe" "All the stored vengeance of Heaven fall On her ungrateful top !" (Shak) 6. The head, or upper part, of a plant. "The buds . . . Are called heads, or tops, as cabbageheads." (I. Watts) 7. A platform surrounding the head of the lower mast and projecting on all sudes. It serves to spead the topmast rigging, thus strengheningthe mast, and also furnishes a convenient standing place for the men aloft. 8. A bundle or ball of slivers of comkbed wool, from which the noils, or dust, have been taken out. 9. Eve; verge; point. "He was upon the top of his marriage with Magdaleine." 10. The part of a cut gem between the girdle, or circumference, and the table, or flat upper surface. Top is often used adjectively or as the first part of compound words, usually self-explaining; as, top stone, or topstone; top-boots, or top boots; top soil, or top-soil. Top and but, a phrase used to denote a method of working long tapering planks by bringing the but of one plank to the top of the other to make up a constant breadth in two layers. <zoology> Top minnow, a small viviparous fresh water fish (Gambusia patruelis) abundant in the Southern United States. Also applied to other similar species. Origin: AS. Top; akin to OFries. Top a tuft, D. Top top, OHG. Zopf end, tip, tuft of hair, G. Zopf tuft of hair, pigtail, top of a tree, Icel. Toppr a tuft of hair, crest, top, Dan. Top, Sw. Topp pinnacle, top; of uncertain origin. Cf. Tuft. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| top-shaped | <botany> Having the shape of a top; cone-shaped, with the apex downward; turbinate. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| top-shell | <zoology> Any one of numerous species of marine top_shaped shells of the genus Thochus, or family Trochidae. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| turban-top | <botany> A kind of fungus with an irregularly wrinkled, somewhat globular pileus (Helvella, or Gyromitra, esculenta). Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| flat top waves | Activity in the electroencephalogram having a pattern suggesting a flat top; these wave's are often found in temporal lobe discharges. (05 Mar 2000) |
| night | Origin: OE. Night, niht, AS. Neaht, niht; akin to D. Nacht, OS. & OHG. Naht, G. Nacht, Icel. Ntt, Sw. Natt, Dan. Nat, Goth. Nachts, Lith. Naktis, Russ. Noche, W. Nos, Ir. Nochd, L. Nox, noctis, gr, Skr. Nakta, nakti. Cf. Equinox, Nocturnal. 1. That part of the natural day when the sun is beneath the horizon, or the time from sunset to sunrise; especially, the time between dusk and dawn, when there is no light of the sun, but only moonlight, starlight, or artificial light. "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." (Gen. I. 5) 2. Hence: Darkness; obscurity; concealment. "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night." (Pope) Intellectual and moral darkness; ignorance. A state of affliction; adversity; as, a dreary night of sorrow. The period after the close of life; death. "She closed her eyes in everlasting night." (Dryden) A lifeless or unenlivened period, as when nature seems to sleep. "Sad winter's night". Night is sometimes used, especially. With participles, in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, night-blooming, night-born, night-warbling, etc. Night by night, Night after night, nightly; many nights. "So help me God, as I have watched the night, Ay, night by night, in studying good for England." (Shak) Night bird. <medicine> A bird of ill omen that cries in the night; especially, the bittern. Night rule. A tumult, or frolic, in the night; as if a corruption, of night revel. Such conduct as generally rules, or prevails, at night. "What night rule now about this haunted grove?" (Shak) Night sight. <medicine> See Nyctolopia. Night snap, a night thief. Night soil, human excrement; so called because in cities it is collected by night and carried away for manure. Night spell, a charm against accidents at night. <zoology> Night swallow, the sedge warbler (Acrocephalus phragmitis); called also night singer. Night watch. A period in the night, as distinguished by the change of watch. A watch, or guard, to aford protection in the night. Night watcher, one who watches in the night; especially, one who watches with evil designs. Night witch. Same as Night hag, above. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| night blindness | Failure or imperfection of vision at night or in dim light, with good vision only on bright days. (12 Dec 1998) |
| night-blooming | Blooming in the night. Night-blooming cereus. <botany> See Note under Cereus. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| night care | Institutional night care of patients. (12 Dec 1998) |
| night hospital | A special facility, or an arrangement within a hospital setting, providing treatment and lodging at night for patients able to work in the community during the day. Compare: day hospital. (05 Mar 2000) |
| night myopia | In dark adaptation the eye becomes more sensitive to shorter wave lengths (Purkinje shift), and visual acuity depends on parafoveal blue cones. Shorter wavelengths come into focus in front of the retina, and this chromatic aberration accounts for some of the relative myopia that a normal eye experiences at night; much of the remainder is due to an increase in accommodative tone in the dark. Pathologic myopia, progressive myopia marked by fundus changes, posterior staphyloma, and subnormal corrected acuity. Synonym: degenerative myopia, malignant myopia. Prematurity myopia, myopia observed in infants of low birth weight or in association with retrolental fibroplasia. (05 Mar 2000) |
| night pain | Denoting especially the osteocopic pains of syphilis occurring at night. Synonym: night pain. Origin: nyct-+ G. Algos, pain (05 Mar 2000) |
| night sight | <ophthalmology> Day blindness, defective vision in a bright light. Origin: Gr. Hemera = day, alaos = blind (18 Nov 1997) |
| night sweats | Profuse sweating at night, occurring in pulmonary tuberculosis and other chronic debilitating affections with low-grade fever. (05 Mar 2000) |
| night-terrors | A disorder allied to nightmare, occurring in children, in which the child awakes screaming with fright, the distress persisting for a time during a state of saemiconsciousness. Synonym: pavor nocturnus, sleep terror. (05 Mar 2000) |