Top n.
 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 his baby 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. Naut. 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. Wool Manuf. A bundle or ball of slivers of comkbed wool, from which the noils, or dust, have been taken out.
 9. Eve; verge; point. [R.] “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.
 11. pl. Top-boots. [Slang]
 12. Golf (a) A stroke on the top of the ball. (b) A forward spin given to the ball by hitting it on or near the top.
 Note: ☞ 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 Shipbuilding, 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.
 Top minnow Zool., a small viviparous fresh-water fish (Gambusia patruelis) abundant in the Southern United States. Also applied to other similar species.
 From top to toe, from head to foot; altogether.