top-full, a. Now rare.
(ˈtɒpˈfʊl)
Also erron. topful.
[f. top n.1 + full a.]
Full to the top; brim-full.
| 1553 Bale Gardiner's De vera Obed. G vj b, As it were a vessell being toppe full of water. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 49 A huge great purse top full of gold. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy V. xxxviii, My father drew in his lungs topfull of air. 1827 G. Darley in Q. Rev. July (1902) 186 Both go tottering, tattling home Topful of wine as well as glee. |
† b. transf. Said of that which fills (to the top): brimming. Obs. rare.
| 1602 Dolman La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618) III. 769 If one cast into the same so toppefull water, some heauy thing, the water..will swell onely. 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 52 Achab's House, whose cursed wickednesse Was now top-full. |
c. fig.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 944/1 We shall haue the measure of our perfection and of all good workes toppefull. 1648 Darnell in I. Basire's Corr. (1831) 74 Topfull of busines as I am. 1751 R. Paltock P. Wilkins xiv. (1883) 46/1 Top-full of these thoughts, I re-entered my grotto. 1881 Fairbairn Stud. Life Christ v. 86 She, unsexed, filled from crown to toe, topfull of direst cruelty. |