Term of enthusiasm for something, common in England. Abbreviation for top banana.
E.G. "Getting stinking drunk and jumping naked in the jacuzzi with a bunch of hot chicks? That's a top idea!!"

JOU SHOU SHAN ue (top, up, best)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

A figurative symbol indicating an area above a line. Originally written as something like = but with a shorter top stroke; the verticle line was later added for clarity. Compare with the character for below.

Other notes:

A character with a lot of varied and adopted meanings. I happen to like the reading ue in that, among other things, it can mean eat, drink, or die. How ironically poetic.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: JOU SHOU SHAN
kun-yomi: ue -ue uwa- kami a(geru) -a(geru) a(garu) -a(garu) a(gari) -a(gari) nobo(ru) nobo(ri) nobo(seru) nobo(su) yo(su)

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: aoi age i ka kaki kazu kan kou nobori hotsu

English Definitions:

  1. JOU: top; best; first volume.
  2. SHOU: upper part; government.
  3. ue: up, upper part, top, summit; surface; far better; higher; (in) authority; as far as ... is converned; besides; after; emperor, sovereign; upon examination; influence of (liquor); lord, shogun; superior.
  4. a(geru): rise; go up; advance; enter; call on; go bankrupt; begin spinning (cocoons); be caught; eat; drink; die; weaken (as a battery); let up (rain).
  5. a(geru): raise, elevate; fly (kites); vomit; admin; present; bear (a child).
  6. a(gattari): poor business.
  7. a(gari): ascent, rise; death; spinning; stop.
  8. nobu(ru): rise, ascent; sail up; be promoted; come up to (on the agenda).
  9. nobo(su), nobo(seru): raise; record; bring up (a matter); send someone out (from Kyoto).
  10. kami: top; head; upper part; emperor; the above.
  11. -ue: my dear (father).
  12. -jou: aboard a ship or vehicle; from the standpoint of.
  13. jou-: governmental; imperial; best; high class; going up; presenting, showing.
  14. uwa-: upper, upward, outer, surface, top.
  15. -a(gezu): every (two days, etc.).
  16. -a(gari): after (rain); ex-(official, etc.).

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 10
Henshall: 37

Unicode Encoded Version:

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

以上 (ijou): over, above.
川上 (kawakami): upstream.
値上げ (neage): price rise.
(jouki): dizzyness; rush of blood to the head.
上官 (joukan): superior officer.
(joudeki): good performance

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top (1) is an interactive process lister for Linux and Unix systems. It is one of the most useful programs available on the standard Linux command line. Unlike the more standard ps tool, which prints out a customisable listing of the processes running on the system, top provides a real-time updating list of processes, along with a significant amount of useful information.

A typical top output on a lightly-loaded, Linux 2.6-based system is:

top - 14:53:25 up  3:33,  1 user,  load average: 1.16, 1.17, 1.20
Tasks:  83 total,   2 running,  81 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  8.3% us,  4.3% sy, 83.7% ni,  0.0% id,  0.0% wa,  3.7% hi,  0.0% si
Mem:    514236k total,   509300k used,     4936k free,    12068k buffers
Swap:  1834288k total,       60k used,  1834228k free,   246228k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
  607 rpgeek    39  19 70712  10m 2112 R 86.8  2.1 189:01.27 FahCore_65.exe
  373 root      15   0 83996  45m  41m S  2.7  9.1   4:53.80 XFree86
 2176 rpgeek    15   0 33924  17m  30m S  2.7  3.4   0:00.58 kdeinit
  377 rpgeek    15   0  3536 2024 2572 S  1.0  0.4   0:37.77 famd
 2178 rpgeek    16   0  2088  988 1876 R  0.7  0.2   0:00.15 top
  480 rpgeek    16   0 27244  14m  24m S  0.3  2.9   0:09.83 kwin
 2034 rpgeek    15   0 97876  68m  43m S  0.3 13.7   0:06.86 juk
    1 root      16   0  1520  444 1368 S  0.0  0.1   0:05.63 init
    2 root      34  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
    3 root       5 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.46 events/0
    4 root       5 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.08 kblockd/0
This shows a wealth of instantaneous information on the running system. It is divided between the whole-system information at the top and the per-process information at the bottom. In addition to some basic statistics about the system load, it displays the current CPU, RAM, and swap usage in the top half. The important part, however, is the sortable list of processes in the bottom half of the output.

It is possible to sort the process list by any of the pieces of information shown. Sorting by PID or process name is relatively useless, adding nothing to the non-interactive ps command. It can be useful to sort processes by user, priority, or execution time, but these things change rarely and can also be done with ps. The most useful ways to sort the list are by memory usage (with a capital M keystroke) and processor utilisation (with a capital P keystroke). When doing work on a Unix system it is often useful to know what programs are using the available CPU time and memory, and top provides a list, updating in realtime, of the top users of one of these resources (this is why it's called 'top')

Top also provides an interface for management of processes, specificially sending them signals (equivalent to the 'kill' command) and changing their priority (equivalent to the 'renice' command). These features are little used compared to top's display capabilities. Top includes a terse but useful online help system, accessible by pressing '?', explaining top's complex interface for changing the display and performing process management tasks.

Due to its frequent display updates, top uses a relatively large amount of CPU time, reading the entire process table around every second. Since the process table is read while top is an active process, top itself is biased towards in the processor usage statistics, often briefly jumping to the top of the list on a relatively idle system. Top is often reniced to a lower priority than standard so that this does not disrupt more important tasks.

The interface and display style of top are familiar enough to Linux hackers that several more specialised monitor programs provide a similar interface. Examples are slabtop for probing Linux kernel memory and xrestop for monitoring the usage of X Window System server resources. Graphical programs that provide similar services to top are KSysGuard and GKrellM, both of which have larger scope and friendlier interfaces, at the price of size and complexity.


(CC)
This writeup is copyright 2004-2005 D.G. Roberge and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence. Details can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ .
to top
To cheat, or trick: also to insult: he thought to have topped upon me. Top; the signal among taylors for snuffing the candles: he who last pronounces that word, is obliged to get up and perform the operation.-- to be topped; to be hanged. The cove was topped for smashing queerscreens; he was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.
top diver
A lover of women. An old top diver; one who has loved old hat in his time.
top heavy
Drunk.
top lights
The eyes. Blast your top lights. See curse.
top ropes
To sway away on all top ropes; to live riotously or extravagantly.
top sail
He paid his debts at Portsmouth with the topsail; i.e. he went to sea and left them unpaid. SCT soldiers are said to pay off their scores with the drum; that is, by marching away..

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Top (?), n. [CF. OD. dop, top, OHG., MNG., & dial. G. topf; perhaps akin to G. topf a pot.]

1.

A child's toy, commonly in the form of a conoid or pear, made to spin on its point, usually by drawing off a string wound round its surface or stem, the motion being sometimes continued by means of a whip.

2. (Rope Making)

A plug, or conical block of wood, with longitudital grooves on its surface, in which the strands of the rope slide in the process of twisting.

 

© Webster 1913


Top (?), n. [AS. top; akin to OFries. top a tuft, D. top top, OHG. zopf end, tip, tuft of hair, G. zopf tuft of hair, pigtail, top of a tree, Icel. toppr a tuft of hair, crest, top, Dan. top, Sw. topp pinnacle, top; of uncertain origin. Cf. Tuft.]

1.

The highest part of anything; the upper end, edge, or extremity; the upper side or surface; summit; apex; vertex; cover; lid; as, the top of a spire; the top of a house; the top of a mountain; the top of the ground.

The star that bids the shepherd fold,
Now the top of heaven doth hold.
Milton.

2.

The utmost degree; the acme; the summit.

The top of my ambition is to contribute to that work.
Pope.

3.

The highest rank; the most honorable position; the utmost attainable place; as, to be at the top of one's class, or at the top of the school.

And wears upon his baby brow the round
And top of sovereignty.
Shak.

4.

The chief person; the most prominent one.

Other . . . aspired to be the top of zealots.
Milton.

5.

The crown of the head, or the hair upon it; the head. "From top to toe" Spenser.

All the stored vengeance of Heaven fall
On her ungrateful top !
Shak.

6.

The head, or upper part, of a plant.

The buds . . . are called heads, or tops, as cabbageheads.
I. Watts.

7. (Naut.)

A platform surrounding the head of the lower mast and projecting on all sudes. It serves to spead the topmast rigging, thus strengheningthe mast, and also furnishes a convenient standing place for the men aloft. Totten.

8. (Wool Manuf.)

A bundle or ball of slivers of comkbed wool, from which the noils, or dust, have been taken out.

9.

Eve; verge; point. [R.] "He was upon the top of his marriage with Magdaleine." Knolles.

10.

The part of a cut gem between the girdle, or circumference, and the table, or flat upper surface. Knight.

11. pl.

Top-boots. [Slang] Dickens.

Top is often used adjectively or as the first part of compound words, usually self-explaining; as, top stone, or topstone; top-boots, or top boots; top soil, or top-soil.

Top and but (Shipbuilding), a phrase used to denote a method of working long tapering planks by bringing the but of one plank to the top of the other to make up a constant breadth in two layers. --
Top minnow (Zoöl.), a small viviparous fresh-water fish (Gambusia patruelis) abundant in the Southern United States. Also applied to other similar species.

 

© Webster 1913


Top, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Topped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Topping.]

1.

To rise aloft; to be eminent; to tower; as, lofty ridges and topping mountains. Derham.

2.

To predominate; as, topping passions. "Influenced by topping uneasiness." Locke.

3.

To excel; to rise above others.

But write thy, and top.
Dryden.

 

© Webster 1913


Top, v. t.

1.

To cover on the top; to tip; to cap; -- chiefly used in the past participle.

Like moving mountains topped with snow.
Waller.

A mount
Of alabaster, topped with golden spires.
Milton.

2.

To rise above; to excel; to outgo; to surpass.

Topping all others in boasting.
Shak.

Edmund the base shall top the legitimate.
Shak.

3.

To rise to the top of; to go over the top of.

But wind about till thou hast topped the hill.
Denham.

4.

To take off the or upper part of; to crop.

Top your rose trees a little with your knife.
Evelyn.

5.

To perform eminently, or better than before.

From endeavoring universally to top their parts, they will go universally beyond them.
Jeffrey.

6. (Naut.)

To raise one end of, as a yard, so that that end becomes higher than the other.

To top off, to complete by putting on, or finishing, the top or uppermost part of; as, to top off a stack of hay; hence, to complete; to finish; to adorn.

 

© Webster 1913


Top, n. (Golf)

(a)

A stroke on the top of the ball.

(b)

A forward spin given to the ball by hitting it on or near the top. --
From top to toe, from head to foot; altogether.

 

© Webster 1913


Top, v. t.

1. (Dyeing)

To cover with another dye; as, to top aniline black with methyl violet to prevent greening and crocking.

2.

To put a stiffening piece or back on (a saw blade).

3.

To arrange, as fruit, with the best on top. [Cant]

4.

To strike the top of, as a wall, with the hind feet, in jumping, so as to gain new impetus; -- said of a horse.

5.

To improve (domestic animals, esp. sheep) by crossing certain individuals or breeds with other superior.

6. (Naut.)

To raise one end of, as a yard, so that that end becomes higher than the other.

7.

To cut, break, or otherwise take off the top of (a steel ingot) to remove unsound metal.

8. (Golf)

To strike (the ball) above the center; also, to make (as a stroke) by hitting the ball in this way.

 

© Webster 1913


Top, v. i.

1. (Golf)

To strike a ball above the center.

2. (Naut.)

To rise at one end, as a yard; -- usually with up.

 

© Webster 1913

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