1. The upper part of a boot; esp. of top-boots.
1768. Wales, in Phil. Trans., LX. 109. I saw one woman with a child in each boot top.
1825. S. & Sarah Adams, Compl. Servant, 384. Liquid for cleansing Boot Tops, &c.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, xxxii. The autocrat of the great world of fashion and cravats … fed the pampered appetite of his boot-tops on champagne.
2. Naut. a. In phrase ‘to give a ship boot-tops’: see quot.; b. = BOOT-TOPPING b.
1764. Croker, etc. Dict. Arts, s.v., It is usual to make her heel, or incline first to one side and then to the other;… and having scrubbed off the ooze, shells, or other excrement, with brushes and brooms, they cover it with a mixture of tallow, sulphur, &c., and this is called giving her boot-tops.
1842. F. Cooper, Jack o’ Lantern, I. 126. Every vessel that isn’t coppered shows her boot-top.
