Word.ws English Dictionary

Topsy

UK/ˈtɒpsi/

Topsy noun: something or someone who figuratively grows without control or intention.

Noun

Topsy

  1. Something or someone who figuratively grows without control or intention.
    • They employ a symbolism which grew like Topsy and has little consistency […]1945, Vannevar Bush, As We May Think
    • Are you implying that it just grew—a Topsy?1973, J Ryder, Trevayne

Examples of Topsy in a sentence

  • The town grows like Topsy after the railway age begins.1996, John H. Macdonald, The free world, page 25:
  • Topsy-like, the Encyclopédie just grew and grew.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 171:

Origin of Topsy

After a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), who, asked about God, says "I s'pect I growed. Don't think nobody never made me." The sense of excessive out-of-control growth is a misunderstanding.

Phrases with Topsy

Questions about Topsy

What does Topsy mean?
Topsy means something or someone who figuratively grows without control or intention.
How do you use Topsy in a sentence?
The town grows like Topsy after the railway age begins.
What part of speech is Topsy?
Topsy is a noun.
How do you pronounce Topsy?
Topsy is pronounced /ˈtɒpsi/ (UK).

Words near Topsy in the dictionary

  1. topstitching
  2. topstone
  3. topstones
  4. topswarm
  5. topswarms
  6. Topsy
  7. topsy turvied
  8. topsy turvies
  9. topsy turvy
  10. topsy turvyed
  11. topsy-turvey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Topsy (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:

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