Topple v.

[f. TOP v.¹ + -LE 3.]

  1.  intr. To fall top foremost, or as if top-heavy; to fall headlong, tumble or pitch over. Also fig.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 53. The wisest Aunt … Sometine for three-foot stoole, mistaketh me, Then slip I from her bum, downe topples she. Ibid. (1605), Macb., IV. i. 56. Though castles topple on their Warders heads.

1621.  T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 200. Although you bee ready to topple into your grave, and haue not much longer to liue.

1786.  trans. Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 108. The watch-towers were ready to topple headlong upon them.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxvi. (1856), 211. When these [bergs] attain their utmost height, still pressed on by others, they topple over.

1884.  Pall Mall G., 16 Feb., 5/2. Water stocks toppled all round yesterday.

  † b.  ? To roll or tumble about; in quot. 1568, ? to wrestle, to ‘try a fall’ with. Obs.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., I. 146 b. When ye must lye toppleyng in the dust.

1568.  Jacob & Esau, II. ii. C j b. Esau.… I will not eate thee Ragau…. Ragau. No…. Being in your best lust I woulde topple with ye, And plucke a good crowe, ere ye brake your last with me.

  c.  To turn somersaults. dial.

1801.  Bloomfield, Rural T., Rich. & Kate, xxx. The Children toppled on the green.

1802.  W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem., I. 411. A boy about eleven … was toppling beside the Diligence in hope of halfpence.

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Topple, to tumble; to bring the head to the ground and throw the heels over.

  2.  intr. To lean over unsteadily, as if on the point of falling; to overhang threateningly.

1827.  Pollok, Course T., v. 585. Toppling upon the perilous edge of Hell.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xv. 19. Yonder cloud That … topples round the dreary west, A looming bastion fringed with fire.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. vii. 47. Masses of granite … toppling above the terminal face of the glacier.

  3.  trans. To cause to tumble over or fall headlong; to thrust over, overturn, throw down. Also fig.

  To topple up one’s heels, to die: see HEEL sb.¹ 23.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 32 (Qos.). Vnruly wind … which … Shakes the old Beldame earth, and topples [Fol. tumbles] down Steeples and mossegrown towers.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 13. In one year, seauen thousand and fifty people toppled vp their heeles there.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb., VII. xi. 434. At the moment when the victorious legions of Titus had toppled down their bulwarks.

1856.  Miss Mulock, J. Halifax, I. ix. 202. Don’t lurch us into the quarry-pits, or topple us at once down the slope, where we shall roll over and over.

1907.  C. Hill-Tout, Brit. N. Amer., Far West, vii. 136. This method of felling timber is necessarily slow and tedious, but time is rarely of great moment to the savage, and in due course they topple over the biggest trees in this way.

  b.  Topple (tapple) up tail, topple tail: in phr. † to play tapple up tail, ? to die (cf. topple up one’s heels in 3); to turn topple-tail, to turn a somersault (cf. 1 c).

1773.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 57. Take heede … To thresher for hurting of cow with his flaile, Or making thy hen to plaie tapple vp taile.

1828.  Craven Gloss., Topple, ‘to turn topple tail ower,’ to turn topsy turvy.

1884.  Pall Mall G., 6 March, 11/2. How many … have you … who can turn topple-tail accurately?

  4.  To cause to tip or tilt so as to be in danger of being upset. rare.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Breathings Devout Soul (1851), 187. Like some little cock-boat in a rough sea, which every billow topples up and down, and threats to sink.

  Hence Toppled ppl. a., overturned, thrown down; Toppler, one who topples; dial. a tumbler, acrobat.

1871.  J. Miller, Songs Italy (1878), 23. *Toppled old columns that tumble across.

1897.  Daily News, 30 Sept., 5/4. Toppled cartloads of … bricks.

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, *Toppler, a tumbler, who, among various antic postures, throws his heels over his head.

1841.  G. G. Foster, in Mississippi Free Trader, 5 Aug., 2/4.