What is the origin of 'sleep tight'?
Read moreOne of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
verb
[no object]archaic, literaryDrink 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 tope is closely related to the blue shark and shares many of the features of this fish.’
- ‘The sea angling season to date has seen an improvement on last year with big catches of tope and codling reported.’
- ‘Ireland also holds a wealth of beach and rock fishing with the tope more evenly spread than on the UK mainland.’
- ‘Chunking in the vicinity of fish means blue sharks, tope and spurdogs.’
- ‘The tope shark is considered harmless to humans because of its small size and its preference for small prey items.’
- ‘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.’
- ‘By casting uptide anglers started to double the numbers of cod, tope and rays caught in many other areas’
- ‘Scottish waters see incoming tope from June, with peak numbers later in August, though September can be very good.’
- ‘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.’
- ‘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.’
Origin
Late 17th century: perhaps of Cornish origin.
