pegtopn.
/ˈpɛɡtɒp/, U.S. /ˈpɛɡˌtɑp/ 1.
a. A children's game in which a player spins pegtops (see sense 1b) within a prescribed circle, with the aim of knocking over or splitting another player's pegtops. Also occasionally in plural. Now chiefly historical.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > other specific games > [noun] > top-spinning game
pegtopa1652
peg in the ring1766
dreidel1920
a1652 R. Brome New Acad. ii. i. 33 in Five New Playes (1659) But mother fsooth, when I have her, Will she play with me at peg-top?
1766 in H. C. Maxwell-Lyte Hist. Eton Coll. (1911) xvi. 318 Cricket, Fives, Shirking, Walls, Scrambling Walls, Bally Cally, Battledores, Peg-top, Peg in the ring, [etc.].
1785 G. White Jrnl. 23 Jan. (1970) xviii. 256 Boys play on the Plestor at marbles, & peg-top.
1803 J. Russell Jrnl. 23 Sept. in S. Walpole Life Ld. J. Russell (1889) I. i. 6 The boys play at hoops, peg-tops, and pea-shooters.
1828 Boy's Own Bk. 12 Regular games at peg-top are played... The object of each player being to split the tops of his companions.
1841 T. A. Trollope Summer W. France I. viii. 122 The pupils and their ecclesiastical masters began playing peg-top together.
1885 New Bk. Sports 313 Peg-top, like marbles, appears to have very much gone out in London.
1931 P. Guedalla Duke i. iv. 22 Nor do the martial virtues thrive upon a simple diet of peg-top and battledore.
2003 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gaz. (Nexis) 23 Nov. w4 Period gifts representing the late 18th and early 19th century..children's games such as ball and cup, peg tops, the game of graces, bags of clay marbles and Jacob's ladders.
b. A pear-shaped spinning top with a metal pin or peg forming the point, spun by the rapid uncoiling of a string wound around it. Now chiefly historical.
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society > leisure > entertainment > toy or plaything > top > [noun] > peg-top
casting-top1657
peerya1722
pegtop1747
peg1766
boxer1840
pegging-top1899
1747 Inventory John Laurens Estate 12 Sept. in H. Laurens Papers (1968) I. 376 Peg Tops.
1788 Massachusetts Spy 3 Apr. 4/3 Children's Books... Memoirs of a Pegtop. By the Author of, The Adventures of a Pincushion.
1812 H. Smith & J. Smith Rejected Addr. 6 Quite cross, a bit of string I beg, And tie it to his peg top's peg.
1834 H. Caunter Oriental Ann. viii. 110 Here we saw several Hindoo children spinning tops, precisely like the common peg-top used by children in Europe.
1887 A. Jessopp Arcady viii. 238 If there are two men in my parish who can spin a peg-top, I don't know the second.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers (N.Y. ed.) 138 Chieftains, three of them abreast, on foot Strut like peg-tops.
1978 Country Life 14 Dec. 2103/2 Tops: humming tops, peg tops, optical tops, gyroscopes.
2004 Jrnl. (Newcastle) (Nexis) 30 Jan. 7 Whipping tops are spun by being lashed with a whip while others are worked by a wind-up handle. The peg top is spun by winding a string around the top and throwing the top to make it spin.
2. In plural = pegtop trousers n. at Compounds 2.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for legs > clothing for legs and lower body > [noun] > trousers > types of > wide at top and narrow at bottom
pegtops1858
pegtop trousers1858
pegtop pants1862
trouser skirt1910
jods1959
jodhpurs1973
1858 Punch 15 May 202/2 The fashion of trowsers improves, if anything, in ridicule. Henceforth pegtops are split.
1860 J. C. Hotten Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 188 Peg-tops, the loose trousers now in fashion, small at the ankle and swelling upwards, in imitation of the Zouave costume.
1862 H. Kingsley Ravenshoe lxvi Better than pegtops and a black bowler hat, which strike no awe into the beholders.
1998 New Yorker 20 July 41/1 But why weren't they me, those lovely peg tops by Dries?
Compounds
C1. attributive. Having or suggesting the shape of a pegtop, as pegtop pattern, pegtop style, etc.
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1860 All Year Round 29 Sept. 596 Neither would your Angelina love you more dearly were you to have ‘pegtop whiskers’.
1863 C. Dickens Uncommerc. Traveller in All Year Round 12 Sept. 61/1 Round swelling peg-top ricks.
1892 A. C. Gunter Miss Dividends ii. 34 His trousers..are cut in what was then called the ‘peg-top’ pattern.
1894 Daily News 12 Oct. 7/3 The form of trousers inclines to change to the peg-top style.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 482 Those pannier pockets of the skirt and slightly pegtop effect are devised to suggest bunchiness of hip.
1987 Toronto Star (Nexis) 26 Feb. d12 Vogue's long-running bestseller, 2545 by Dior and Burda 6094, a dress and jacket, share the fashionable peg-top cut that uses very modest yardage.
C2.
pegtop pants n. chiefly North American = pegtop trousers n.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for legs > clothing for legs and lower body > [noun] > trousers > types of > wide at top and narrow at bottom
pegtops1858
pegtop trousers1858
pegtop pants1862
trouser skirt1910
jods1959
jodhpurs1973
1862 Peninsular News & Advertiser (Milford, Delaware) 14 Nov. 2/6 (advt.) All the new style Overcoats, Sacks, Business Coats, Peg-top pants, &c., selling at prices so low that everybody will buy and be satisfied.
1923 E. B. White Let. Feb. (1976) 63 A stunning suit—real western cut with peg top pants and everything.
2002 Internat. Herald Tribune (Nexis) 9 July 8 The soft peg-top pants that went with the fitted jackets. The trousers were high rise with no waistband and fell softly, often in silky fabrics and with a buttoned fly.
pegtop skirt n. a skirt that is wide at the waist and narrow at the bottom.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > clothing for lower body > skirt > types of > wide at top and narrow at bottom
pegtop skirt1912
pencil skirt1952
1912 Evening News (Ada, Okla.) 30 Dec. 4/4 We are now presented with the pegtop skirt and asked to consider it a novelty. As a matter of fact, the pegtop skirt is nothing but an adaptation of the pannier.
1956 Punch 15 Aug. 190/3 This Autumn Collection..emphasizing a belted natural waist-line, short peg-top skirts, and a wrapped-up look.
1991 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 1 Dec. c.40 Women [during the Second World War] could buy softer dresses..with peg-top skirts that narrowed toward the hem.
pegtop trousers n. trousers cut very wide in the hips and narrow at the ankles, originally in fashion c1858–65.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for legs > clothing for legs and lower body > [noun] > trousers > types of > wide at top and narrow at bottom
pegtops1858
pegtop trousers1858
pegtop pants1862
trouser skirt1910
jods1959
jodhpurs1973
1858 Times 12 Aug. 7/4 I saw men in pegtop trousers.
1898 Daily News 17 Jan. 8/6 ‘The early sixties’—or ‘Crinoline and peg-top trouser period’.
1998 S. Waters Tipping Velvet xiii. 294 He wore tartan peg-top trousers and a green velvet jacket.
Derivatives
ˈpegtopped adj. (a) wearing pegtop trousers; (b) suggesting a pegtop in shape.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > [adjective] > wearing trousers > wearing other trousers
troused1612
pantalooned1798
overalled1845
pegtopped1861
pantaletted1865
long-trousered1866
blue-jeaned1872
flannelled1898
chaparejoed1921
Oxford-bagged1925
baggy-trousered1928
Levied1966
jodhpured1969
jeaned1970
hot-panted1971
hot-pantsed1971
1861 Illustr. London News 15 June 549/1 Two white-hatted and pegtopped ineffables.
1896 Massillon (Ohio) Independent 27 July 3/3 Trousers are becoming more peg topped than ever.
1959 News Chron. 22 July 3/3 Gently fitted jackets over stiffened pegtopped skirts.
1994 Lime Springs (Iowa) Herald 4 Aug. 2/2 In his yellow pongee shirt, green tie with yellow dots, peg-topped surge [sic] trousers, and toothpick shoes, the effect was nothing short of stunning.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1652