▪ I. toph1, tophe Now rare.
(təʊf)
[ad. L. tōph-us, more correctly tōf-us: see tophus.]
1. Usually toph stone: Travertin, or other soft stone: = tophus 1.
| a 1552 Leland Itin. VI. 72 A Quarre of Tophe Stone by Driselege, wherof much of the Castelle was buildid. 1577 Harrison England iii. xv. (1878) ii. 61 For Tophe stone, not a few allow of the quarrie that is at Drisley, diuerse mislike not of the veine of hard stone that is at Oxford, and Burford. 1811 J. Milner Eccles. Archit. Eng. Mid. Ages 95 Arched with hard stone for the ribs and light toph stone for the interstices. |
2. Path. A calcareous deposit or calculus formed within the human or animal body: = tophus 2.
| 1584 T. Bastard Chrestoleros (1880) 10 Phisition Mirus talkes of saliuation, Of Tophes and Pustules, and Febrication. 1651 Biggs New Disp. §141 A neutrall nature of a tophe, between a Cartilage and a Stone. 1694 Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 64/2 It softens, dissipates, yea, and dissolves the chalky Concretions..pocky Nodes, Tophs, Gums, and Swellings. Ibid. 682/1 It cleanses the Skin,..takes away Gouty Tophs, cures the Leprosie. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Toph, a word us'd by some Chirurgical Writers for a kind of Swelling in the Bones. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) IV. 532 Some structural irritation within the cavity of the skull, such as a node or toph. 1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxviii. 355 Exanthemata..nodes, tophes, syphilitic gout and rheumatism. |
▪ II. ‖ toph2
(toːf)
[Heb. tōph, f. tāphaph to sound or beat the timbrel; app. echoic.]
A Hebrew instrument of music, of the nature of a timbrel or tabret.
| [1749 Thoph: see Tophet 1.] 1864 Engel Mus. Anc. Nat. 222 This deff may have been the toph of the Hebrews, as well as the square tambourine of the ancient Egyptians. 1879 Stainer Music of Bible 155 Among the instruments which the company of prophets bare..was a toph. |