atop, adv. and prep.
(əˈtɒp)
[a prep.1 + top; formerly written divisim.]
A. adv. On or at the top, above.
| 1658 Rowland Mouffet's Theat. of Ins. 912 Boil them..in an earthen vessel, take off the skim a top. 1779 in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 534 A black mass a-top, and a metallic mass at bottom. 1877 M. Arnold Sohrab & R. Sel. Poems (1882) 37 From the fluted spine atop, a plume Of horsehair waved. |
b. followed by of.
| 1672 Penn Spir. Truth 120 Set atop of Christ, that is, over His Head. 1708 S. Centlivre Busie Body iv. ii, You are a-top of the House, and you are down in the Cellar. 1883 W. Sikes in Harper's Mag. Feb. 349/1 A round hole in the greensward atop of the cliff. |
B. prep. [by omission of of.] On the top of.
| 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. 14. xviii. (1669) 67/1 Float a-top the waves. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. Addr. 6 Sideways, not under or a-top the Spear. 1868 Hawthorne Amer. Note-Bks. (1879) I. 179 Rushing atop the waves. |