What is the origin of 'sleep tight'?
Read moreOne of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
verb
[no object]literary, archaicDrink alcohol to excess, especially on a regular basis.
‘he was toping the while from a flagon of sack’intoxicated, inebriated, drunken, befuddled, incapable, tipsy, the worse for drink, under the influence, maudlinView synonyms
Origin
Mid 17th century: perhaps an alteration of obsolete top ‘overbalance’; perhaps from Dutch toppen ‘slant or tilt a ship's yard’.
Pronunciation
noun
- another term for stupa
Origin
From Punjabi thūp, thop ‘barrow, mound’, apparently related to Sanskrit stūpa.
Pronunciation
noun
(in South Asia) a grove or plantation of trees, especially mango trees.
- ‘In 1894, Rice reported that there were about 2000 topes with about 100,000 trees in the entire Bangalore District.’
plantation, farm, holdingView synonyms
Origin
From Telugu tōpu or Tamil tōppu.
Pronunciation
noun
A small greyish slender-bodied shark, occurring chiefly in inshore waters.
Genus Galeorhinus, family Carcharhinidae: the East Atlantic G. galeus, favoured by British sea anglers, and the commercially important G. australis of Australia
- ‘The sea angling season to date has seen an improvement on last year with big catches of tope and codling reported.’
- ‘Scottish waters see incoming tope from June, with peak numbers later in August, though September can be very good.’
- ‘On the other hand, I have been invited to fly-fish for pollock and tope off the Mull of Galloway in a couple of weeks.’
- ‘Chunking in the vicinity of fish means blue sharks, tope and spurdogs.’
- ‘What looked like a cross between a tope and a bull huss looked decidedly unhappy and I had to run over and get a glimpse of the biggest fish I had ever seen taken from the shore.’
- ‘By casting uptide anglers started to double the numbers of cod, tope and rays caught in many other areas’
- ‘The tope shark is considered harmless to humans because of its small size and its preference for small prey items.’
- ‘Ireland also holds a wealth of beach and rock fishing with the tope more evenly spread than on the UK mainland.’
- ‘The tope is closely related to the blue shark and shares many of the features of this fish.’
- ‘None of us knew how to handle a shark or tope of this size and I feared for a serious injury if we landed it.’
- ‘These roll around until they hit the reef where the baits are and add smell to the water to help the tope home in on your baits.’
Origin
Late 17th century: perhaps of Cornish origin.
