rare. [f. TOP sb.2 3 + MAN sb.1] A man who is engaged in laying rope.
1851–4. Tomlinson, Cycl. Arts (1866), II. 465/2. The motion of the top requires to be regulated so as to ensure equal hardness in the rope: the topman, therefore, before putting in the top, makes a mark across the strands of every beam: if, when the top reaches a beam the mark be above the bearer, the topman knows that the turning at the foretop has been too fast.
