peg top
- noun
- UK
:
peonza
- He wound the string carefully before letting the peg top whirl across the table.
Examples
-
The children took turns spinning the peg top on the old wooden floor.
-
A brightly painted peg top was his favorite childhood toy.
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The peg top spun beautifully on the table.
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He bought a colorful peg top for his sister.
-
He wound the string carefully before letting the peg top whirl across the table.
-
A brightly painted peg top was his favorite childhood toy.
-
The children took turns spinning the peg top on the old wooden floor.
Synonyms
81
1.8
A small toy that spins on a point
1
1.3
A small toy that turns quickly on a sharp point
A small toy that spins quickly on a point like a top
A spinning toy that makes a soft buzzing sound when it moves
A toy that spins when you hit it with a string
How Fast
- Informal
1
3.2
- UK
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a spinning toy with a peg' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'peg' (a small pin) + 'top' (a spinning toy); a learner who knows both words can infer a top that has a peg. This straightforward noun‑noun compound follows a common naming pattern and is cross‑linguistically transparent, so it should be understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Peg top comes from the toy's shape: a round wooden top with a small pointed peg at the bottom. You wind a string and spin it so the peg touches the floor and the toy whirls, so the name came to mean 'a spinning toy'.