† top-castlen.
Obsolete.
a. An embattled platform at the head of a ship's masts, from which missiles were discharged: later called also top (top n.1 9).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > masts, rigging, or sails > spar > [noun] > mast > platform at top of mast > embattled platform on warship
top-castle13..
merlon1790
military top1887
military foretop1895
fighting-top1896
1335 Accts. Exchequer King's Remembrancer (P.R.O.: E101/19/14) m. 6 In paracione de guerra et arraiamenta cuiusdam magni Navis vocat' la Trinite, vt in Ofcastel, Topcastel et Forcastel... In cordis emptis pro petris tractandis apud Topcastel. xviij d. Rendered, in Nicolas Hist. Royal Navy (1847) II. 170 The ‘Trinity’, of two hundred tons, was prepared for war with an ‘ofcastle, topcastle, and forecastle’; the ‘ofcastle’ being the aftcastle, and the ‘topcastle’ the ‘top’ or stage at the top of the mast; and ropes were bought for pulling stones up to the topcastle.]
13.. Coer de L. 2539 Sterne strokes with harde stones Out off the top-castel on hygh.
a1400 Siege of Troy 695 in Archiv neu. Spr. LXXII. 27 Vche maste hade top castel And asayliþ þe cite harde and wel.
1411 Accts. Exchequer King's Remembrancer 44/17 La barge appelle la Marie de la Toure..ove lapparail..une mast, un trief ove iiij. bonetz, un topchastiell, un seilyerde.
c1450 in C. L. Kingsford Chrons. London (1905) 145 Beryng the standard of Seynt Jorge in the topcastell lyke Englissh schippes.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. v. f. 27 The foreshyppe and the sterne, the toppe castel, the maste.
b. transferred and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > [noun] > state of or advanced condition > highest point
prickOE
heighta1050
full1340
higha1398
pointc1400
roofa1500
top-castle1548
ruff1549
acmea1568
tip1567
noontide1578
high tide1579
superlative1583
summity1588
spring tide1593
meridian1594
period1595
apogee1600
punctilio1601
high-water mark1602
noon1609
zenith1610
auge1611
apex1624
culmination1633
cumble1640
culmen1646
climax1647
topc1650
cumulus1659
summit1661
perigeum1670
highest1688
consummation1698
stretch1741
high point1787
perihelion1804
summary1831
comble1832
heading up1857
climacteric1870
flashpoint1878
tip-end1885
peak1902
noontime1903
Omega point1981
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Luke xi. 110 To sytte euen in the high topcastell of true seruyng of God.
1556 in J. G. Nichols Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 84 There was a man made too tope~castelles above the crosse of the stepulle, and there stode with a flagge in hys honde and viij flagges hangynge besyde.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory (1905) iii. xxi. 252/1 He beareth Vert, the top castle of a Loome, with its pullaces, issueing out of base, Or.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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