topside, n. (adv.)
(ˈtɒpsaɪd)
[f. top n.1 + side n.1]
A. n. a. gen. The upper side of anything.
| 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. i. 27 This Bolt must be wrought straight on all its sides, except the Topside. 1980 Family Handyman Sept. 85/1 Did you just smear caulk over the topside crack and hope for the best? |
b. Shipbuilding. The upper part of a ship's side: cf. top-timber. Also attrib.
| 1815 [see top n.1 7]. 1836 Marryat Pirate iv, She is..taking it in at the topsides. 1874 Thearle Naval Archit. 49 At the present day we hear only of topside planking, wales, bottom plank, and garboards. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Topside-line,..a sheer line drawn above the top timber at the upper side of the gunwale. 1889 Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. vi. 96 The transverse frames..are continuous from topside to topside across the keel. 1903 Daily Chron. 21 Feb. 9/4 With nickel-steel top-sides and a bronze under-body, the boat will be the first composition yacht since the Defender. |
c. Butchering. The outer side of a round of beef, cut from the haunch between the ‘leg’ and the ‘aitch-bone’; the bottom of this is the ‘silver-side’.
| 1896 Girl's Own Paper 8 Feb. 295/1 Braised beef.—A piece of ‘top-side’ is best for the purpose. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 5/2 In schools, where topsides and legs of mutton are the chief supply, the price would be proportionately less. |
d. Billiards. = top n.1 20.
| 1904 Mannock Billiards Expounded I. 163 ‘Top side’ is, as its title would suggest, gained by hitting the cue-ball as high up as possible. |
e. Phr. topside down, topsides under, upside down. rare.
| 1725 Bradley's Fam. Dict. s.v. Miroton, Let it be well clear'd from the Fat, and laid Topside-down in the Dish. 1872 W. Morris in Mackail Life (1899) I. 288 Unless the world turns topsides under, some day. |
f. Oil Industry. (See quot. 1948.) Now usu. with reference to the equipment and installations above water in offshore drilling. Freq. attrib.
| 1948 Dialect Notes IX. 60 Top side, any place above ground or ground level... Borrowed from nautical usage. 1975 Offshore Aug. 136/3 The system consists of a neutrally buoyant helmet mounted camera assembly and topside controls. 1977 Offshore Engineer Aug. 38/2 The manufacture of topside equipment. 1981 Daily Tel. 2 June 2/7 He [sc. a diver] complained of ‘poor topside management’. 1982 Sci. Amer. Apr. 35/1 In designing platforms for North American conditions one can assume extended periods of calm for fastening the platform to the sea floor and erecting the topsides. |
g. (With capital initial.) The upper or ruling classes, the Establishment. Freq. attrib. passing into adj.
| 1958 J. B. Priestley Topside 5 Topside people. Ibid. 8 Topside..takes and uses power, controls all patronage, imposes whatever pattern it prefers on the life of the nation. 1959 New Statesman 10 Jan. 47/2, I make this criticism as one who, in general, agrees with Priestley. What he calls Topside, what others call the Establishment, and what others, including myself, still call the capitalist ruling-class, does indeed..behave very much as Jordan asserts. 1962 Guardian 6 Oct. 5/2 J. B. Priestley, quite an attraction even in Topside Cheltenham. 1973 Listener 7 June 742/3 Jazz in the thirties in Topside circles was synonymous with vulgarity. |
h. Meteorol. The part of the ionosphere above the height at which the concentration of free electrons is greatest, viz. about 300 km. Freq. attrib.
| 1962 Canad. Jrnl. Physics XL. 1692 The sounder is part of the ‘Alouette’ satellite.., which was launched at 0605 GMT on September 29, 1962... Several unfamiliar phenomena appear on the top-side ionograms... The top-side sounder project is an international one. 1965 Heikkila & Axford in C. O. Hines et al. Physics of Earth's Upper Atmosphere v. 114 Most recently, the technique of ‘topside sounding’ from a satellite has been accomplished. Ibid., Better geographical coverage can be obtained now for the topside than for the bottom. 1976 Nature 19 Aug. 675/1 It may be possible to consider this process as a means of modifying the topside ionosphere by using a high power, low frequency transmitter at high latitudes. 1979 J. K. Hargreaves Upper Atmosphere iii. 39 To study the ‘topside’, an ionosonde may be carried on a satellite. |
B. adv. On the top. Also fig. Freq. with reference to the upper deck of a ship. Also, to the top, and in form topsides. colloq.
| 1873 Leland Egypt. Sketch Bk. 89 Will the big nigger sit..top-side of the carriage, or on the locomotive? 1898 Westm. Gaz. 29 Sept. 2/3 Straining every nerve to keep ‘top-side’ in China. 1899 F. T. Bullen Way Navy 85 All the privileges attaching to those who work ‘topside’ in a ship of war. 1946 P. Carter in Aldiss & Harrison Decade 40s (1975) 115 Chief [Navigator] Schmidt..relayed data topside. 1971 H. T. Walden Anchorage Northeast i. 27 While the ferry awaited its capacity load of eight vehicles a band topsides serenaded the passengers with martial airs. 1976 L. Sanders Hamlet Warning (1977) ii. xix. 164 On the third level below the main deck, they met four men..fleeing topside in panic. 1977 New Yorker 15 Aug. 54/3, I bring two of the sandwiches topside. 1978 Guardian Weekly 2 Apr. 24/5 A carrion crow..who, though damaged, can get top-sides of the noisy pack of gulls who winter near here. |