to top out
7
5.4
- phrasal verb
- /tɑp aʊt/
- Informal
:
alcanzar el máximo
- Compare that to farmworkers, whose median salaries are $19,000 a year and top out at $25,000.
Painstaking process, but what it's meant is that I've now topped out my calories.
- Painstaking process, but what it's meant is that I've now topped out my calories.
- But it would make sense that we're getting closer to topping out, especially as we're starting to get some GDP data coming in a little softer.
Examples
-
Expect the temperatures to top out at around 100 degrees today.
-
The largest IMF program topped out at around $30 billion.
Academic text (2008) -
For those who do pay tax, the maximum rate tops out at 17%, and most people pay less.
Blog text (5) -
The effective rate in that era topped out at around 40%.
Blog text (9) -
In that year, unemployment topped out at a whopping 25 percent.
Blog text (8) -
Today's temperatures will top out near normal as we reach 82 degrees this afternoon.
Blog text (11) -
The Blazer topped out at ninety.
Fiction book (1999) -
Today, with sunshine and another 20 lb fire, we topped out at 73°F.
Blog text (22) -
3) The unemployment rate will top out at 10.5% ± 0.3% early in 2010.
Blog text (23) -
The athlete managed to top out his performance with a personal best of 10 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
Synonyms
101
4.2
To reach the highest point in amount or quality
46
5.6
To reach the highest possible level or amount
27
4.9
Reach the highest level or amount
Antonyms
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components suggest a partial compositional meaning: 'top' points to the highest level and the particle 'out' can signal reaching a limit or completion, so a learner might infer something like 'reach the top'. However, the specific nuance of leaving or abandoning a career just as one achieves success is not directly derivable from the parts and requires prior exposure, making the expression only partially predictable.
Etymology
Top out may come from the image of a thermometer or meter whose pointer reaches the very top of its scale and cannot go higher. So top out means 'to reach the highest point'.