verb
1. give up one's career just as one becomes very successful
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The financial consultant topped out at age 40 because he was burned out
• Hypernyms: ↑leave office, ↑quit, ↑step down, ↑resign
• Verb Frames:
-
Somebody ——s
2. provide with a top or finish the top (of a structure)
-
the towers were topped with conical roofs
• Syn: ↑top
• Verb Frames:
-
Somebody ——s something
3. to reach the highest point; attain maximum intensity, activity
-
That wild, speculative spirit peaked in 1929
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Bids for the painting topped out at $50 million
• Syn: ↑peak
• Ant: ↑bottom out
• Hyponyms: ↑crest
• Entailment:
• Verb Frames:
-
Something ——s
-
Something is ——ing PP
* * *
transitive verb1. : to separate (the best animals) from a group
top out hogs
2. : to finish by putting on a cap or uppermost course
: to reach a summit or crest
scraped through a wild-cherry thicket and topped out on the rock flat again — H.L.Davis
investment boom … has topped out — Newsweek
* * *
top out
1. To finish (a building) by putting on the top or highest course
2. (of eg prices) to reach the highest level (and go no further) (toppˈing-out noun)
• • •
Main Entry: ↑top
* * *
ˌtop ˈout [intransitive] [present tense I/you/we/they top out he/she/it tops out present participle topping out past tense topped out past participle topped out] phrasal verb
if a rate or an amount tops out, it reaches its highest level
top out at:
Mortgage rates topped out at 10% before falling last spring.
Thesaurus: to increase, or to increase somethingsynonym
Main entry: top
* * *
reach an upper limit
collectors whose budgets tend to top out at about $50,000
* * *
top out [phrasal verb]
: to reach the highest amount or level and stop increasing
— often + at
Interest rates are expected to top out at 15 percent.
• • •
Main Entry: ↑top
Useful english dictionary. 2012.