treetopn.
a. The top of a tree; the uppermost branches of a tree.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > part of tree or woody plant > [noun] > tree-top
cropa1300
heada1387
tree-crop14..
tree-copc1425
treetop1530
crownet1578
crown1589
coma1870
stag-horn1879
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 233/1 Housetoppe or treetoppe.
a1627 T. Middleton Chast Mayd in Cheape-side (1630) iii. 39 Perch at tree top, And shake the golden fruit into her Lap.
1796 Mother Goose's Melody 15 Hush-a-by, baby On the tree top, When the wind blows the cradle will rock.
1821 J. Clare Village Minstrel (1823) I. 73 The sun each tree top mounted o'er.
1904 R. Bridges Demeter 318 As the light clouds fly O'er the tree-tops high.
b. attributive passing into adj. Of or pertaining to treetops; in the tops of trees. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > high position > [adjective] > in the tree-tops
treetopa1894
the world > plants > part of plant > part of tree or woody plant > [adjective] > of or relating to tree-tops
treetop1945
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > vertical extent > [adjective] > specific
waist high1600
knee-high1742
mast-high1798
shoulder-high1837
horse-high1859
thigh-high1893
stride-high1906
treetop1945
a1894 R. L. Stevenson In South Seas (1896) iii. iii. 239 The folk of the town streamed by us intermittingly... In the first grey of the morning, and again late in the afternoon, these would straggle past about their tree-top business..and vanish from the face of earth.
1945 New Yorker 10 Feb. 23/3 Bombers went to critical missions, at tree-top level.
1961 Sunday Express 26 Feb. 5/3 A tree-top hotel..in the Aberdare Mountains.
1977 Daily Mail 24 Sept. 15/6 One man with a few machines can run a dawn-to-dusk radio station. Britain's few fugitive tree-top pirates do the same on the odd Sunday afternoon.
1979 P. Niesewand Member of Club xxi. 165 Colonel Winter heard the jets flash over; just above tree-top height.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1530