a. [f. TOP sb.1 + -LESS.]
1. Having no top; without a top or summit.
1596. Edw. III., IV. v. 114. There is a loftie hill, Whose top seems toplesse.
1614. C. Brooke, Trag. Rich. III., ii. Thou toplesse builder of great Babel’s Spyre, (Damnéd Ambition!).
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, xliii. Gray topless ruins.
1910. Daily Chron., 14 Jan., 6/7. Statues to well-known Parsees wearing their topless hats.
2. fig. Seeming to have no top or summit; immensely or immeasurably high; unbounded.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 39. The glister of the Sunne vpon the toplesse Promontorie of Sicilia.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., I. i. And even adore my toplesse villany.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. lxviii. 19. Oh the boundless, topless, bottomless, load of divine benefits.
1707. Watts, Hymn, ‘Lord, we are blind,’ ii. Where neither wings nor souls can fly, Nor angels climb the topless throne.
1810. Vermont Jrnl., 8 May, 1/2.
| Beyond the twinkling stars of light, | |
| Or dazzling rays of yonder sun, | |
| To heavenly mansions’ topless height, | |
| To shining seats around the throne. |
1863. Pilgr. Prairies, II. 134. Where topless cliffs frown down on the intruder, forbidding further passage.
† b. Than which there is nothing higher; having no superior; supreme, paramount. Obs. rare–1.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 152. Sometime great Agamemnon, Thy toplesse deputation he puts on.
