Word.ws English Dictionary

topple

Syllables: top·ple/ˈtɒpl̩/US/ˈtɑpl̩/

topple verb: to push or throw over.

Verb

topple (third-person singular simple present topples, present participle toppling, simple past and past participle toppled)

  1. (transitive) To push or throw over.
    • The massed crowds toppled the statue of the former dictator.
  2. To overturn.
  3. (figuratively) To overthrow something.
    • to topple one's rival
    • Barla Von: Most people think I deal in finances, but my real currency is knowledge. I trade information and it has made me very wealthy.
      Barla Von: But the Shadow Broker is the true master. Every day, he buys and sells secrets that could topple governments, always giving them to the highest bidder.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel
  4. (intransitive) To totter and fall, or to lean as if about to do so.
    • The pile of pennies began to topple.
    • […] yonder cloud
      That rises upward always higher,
      ⁠And onward drags a labouring breast,
      ⁠And topples round the dreary west,
      A looming bastion fringed with fire.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24

Noun

topple (plural topples)

  1. (informal) A fall (an instance of falling over).
  2. A cascade of dominoes falling, such that each fall causes the next domino to topple.

topple meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

topple in Hindi

to topple
लुढ़कना luṛhaknā

topple in Tamil

to push, throw over, overturn or overthrow something
பின் தள்ளுதல் piṉ taḷḷutal

topple in Urdu

پلٹنا, پلٹانا

topple in Telugu

to push, throw over, overturn or overthrow something
పడగొట్టు paḍagoṭṭu
More languagesFewer languages
topple in Malayalam
ഇടറിവീഴുക, ഉന്തിയിടുക, മറിഞ്ഞുവീഴുക
topple in Kannada
ಉರುಳು, ಬೀಳು
topple in Sanskrit
पद्यते padyate

Examples of topple in a sentence

  • We gave one more heave and the wall toppled over at last.
  • The grandfather clock toppled back and crashed to the ground.
  • The grandfather clock toppled forward and crashed to the ground.

All 40 example sentences with topple

Forms of topple

Verb
third-person singular presenttopples
present participletoppling
past participletoppled
pasttoppled
Noun
pluraltopples

Past tense of topple: toppled

Origin of topple

From top + -le (frequentative verb suffix).

Words formed from topple

Words that rhyme with topple

Questions about topple

What does topple mean?
Topple means to push or throw over.
What is topple in Hindi?
Topple in Hindi is लुढ़कना (luṛhaknā). See Topple meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is topple?
Topple can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce topple?
Topple is pronounced /ˈtɑpl̩/ (US).
What is the past tense of topple?
The past tense of topple is toppled.

Words near topple in the dictionary

  1. topping up
  2. toppingly
  3. toppingness
  4. toppings
  5. Toppins
  6. topple
  7. topple over
  8. toppled
  9. toppled over
  10. toppler
  11. topplers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: topple (page history and authors); लुढ़कना (Hindi) (page history and authors); topple (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); topple (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); topple (Kannada 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.

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

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