topless

Lacking a top.

Adjective

  1. Lacking a top.
    • The sight-seeing bus is topless to allow tourists a better view of the sights.
  2. Very high; towering.
    • Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, - late 16th century Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
  3. Not wearing a garment covering the top half of the body; naked from the waist up.
    • The council voted to allow topless swimmers on the beach.

    Synonyms: bare-breasted barechested half-naked semi-nude shirtless topfree

  4. Featuring women that are naked from the waist up, often strippers or dancers.
    • Only her closest friends knew that Jenny was working at a topless bar to help with college expenses.
    • Driving down your freeways / Midnight alleys roam / Cops in cars, the topless bars / Never saw a woman so alone - 1971, “L.A. Woman”, in Jim Morrison (lyrics), L.A. Woman, performed by The Doors:
    • She was workin' in a topless place / And I stopped in for beer / I just kept lookin' at the side of her face / In the spotlight so clear. - 1975, Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up in Blue”, in Blood on the Tracks:

Origin

Etymology tree English top Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English topless From top + -less.

Derived

topless dress toplessly topless meeting toplessness topless radio

Adverb

  1. Not wearing any clothes on the upper body.
    • 'I saw her,' said Neptune, 'sunbaking topless.' - 1985, Joan Morrison, Share House Blues, Boolarong Publications, page 43:
    • Fort Collins, Colorado has decided it's not worth the money to fight for its ordinance banning women from appearing topless in public. - 2019 September 19, Pete Williams, “Topless women win big as Colorado city drops...

Noun

  1. A convertible car having the top retracted or otherwise open.

Forms

toplesses

Related

bottomless monokini toplessness