5 tasty sandwich etymologies
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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.
- ‘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.’
- ‘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.’
- ‘The tope is closely related to the blue shark and shares many of the features of this fish.’
- ‘Ireland also holds a wealth of beach and rock fishing with the tope more evenly spread than on the UK mainland.’
- ‘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.’
- ‘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.’
- ‘By casting uptide anglers started to double the numbers of cod, tope and rays caught in many other areas’
- ‘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.’
- ‘The tope shark is considered harmless to humans because of its small size and its preference for small prey items.’
- ‘Chunking in the vicinity of fish means blue sharks, tope and spurdogs.’
Origin
Late 17th century: perhaps of Cornish origin.
Pronunciation:
Further reading
12 synonyms for fool
Read moreAre you looking for a word for a foolish person? We explore twelve interesting words to describe the dunderheads in your life.
6 ‘run’ phrases you probably don’t know
Read moreBefore you run for the hills, let’s run through a list of ‘run’ expressions that are running through our minds.
