to top and tail
- phrasal verb
- UK
:
recortar
- He spent the afternoon topping and tailing a large pile of fresh rhubarb.
Examples
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Before boiling the beans, you should always top and tail them for best results.
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She quickly topped and tailed the carrots before adding them to the salad.
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Please top and tail the green beans before cooking them.
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I always top and tail my carrots for a cleaner presentation.
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To prepare the carrots for cooking, you need to top and tail them first.
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Before adding the peppers to the salad, I always top and tail them to remove the ends.
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The recipe says to top and tail the zucchini before grating it for the dish.
How Trimmed
- UK
95
2.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to remove both ends' is directly and transparently built from the verbs 'top' (remove the upper portion) and 'tail' (remove the tail/stalk), with 'and' indicating both actions applied. This straightforward compositional structure follows normal English coordination and is likely obvious to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Top and tail comes from the kitchen: cooks cut off the top, the stem or leafy end, and the tail, the root end, of vegetables before cooking. So to top and tail something means 'to remove both ends', especially before you cook it.