Word.ws English Dictionary

tope

/təʊp/US/toʊp/

tope verb: to drink excessively; to get drunk.

Verb

tope (third-person singular simple present topes, present participle toping, simple past and past participle toped)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To drink excessively; to get drunk.
    • [I]f he has been toping all Night vvith his pretty Landlady Thetis; ſo has your Lordſhip vvith ſvveet little Jenny at the Thatcht-Houſe, […][1709], Tho[mas] d’Urfey, The Modern Prophets: Or, New Wit for a Husband. A Comedy. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1

Noun (1)

tope (plural topes)

  1. A small, grey, European shark, Galeorhinus galeus, that has rough skin and a long snout.

Noun (2)

tope (plural topes)

  1. (India) A grove of trees.
    • 1868?, James Grant, First Love and Last Love
      Concealed among the long rank grass of the mango tope the three lurkers watched the gate of the camp; but though many passcd out and in, the rider on the bay mare was not one of the number.
    • In addition, a memorandum was kept containing receipts and issues of toddy drawn at a toddy tope.2011, Chandra Mallampalli, Race, Religion and Law in Colonial India

Noun (3)

tope (plural topes)

  1. A mound-like Buddhist sepulchre, or memorial monument, often erected over a relic; a stupa.

Noun (4)

tope (plural topes)

  1. (India, obsolete) A cannon (weapon).
    • They found him strongly posted near the fortress of Deeg, in the midst of bogs, tanks, and topes, and formidably defended by artillery.1857, Cassell's Illustrated History of England, page 269

Proper noun capitalized: Tope

Tope (plural Topes)

  1. A surname.

tope meaning in Tamil

tope in Tamil

சிறுசுறா

Forms of tope

Verb
third-person singular presenttopes
present participletoping
past participletoped
pasttoped
Noun
pluraltopes
Proper noun
pluralTopes

Origin of tope

Alteration of obsolete top (“to drink”), as in top (off).

Borrowed from Tamil தோப்பு (tōppu).

Probably from Pali thūpa. Doublet of stupa.

Words formed from tope

Words that rhyme with tope

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tope

What does tope mean?
Tope means to drink excessively; to get drunk.
What is tope in Tamil?
Tope in Tamil is சிறுசுறா. See Tope meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tope?
Tope can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tope?
Tope is pronounced /toʊp/ (US).
What is the past tense of tope?
The past tense of tope is toped.

Words near tope in the dictionary

  1. topdress
  2. topdressed
  3. topdresses
  4. topdressing
  5. topdressings
  6. tope
  7. Tope Khana
  8. topectomies
  9. topectomy
  10. toped
  11. topee

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tope (page history and authors); Tope (page history and authors); tope (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tope.wav.

Cite this entry: “tope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.