Something that is top-heavy is larger or heavier at the top than at the bottom, and might therefore fall over.
...top-heavy flowers such as sunflowers.
2. adjective
If you describe a business or other organization as top-heavy, you mean that it has too many senior managers in relation to the number of junior managers or workers.
[disapproval]
...top-heavy bureaucratic structures.
top-heavy in British English
adjective
1.
unstable or unbalanced through being overloaded at the top
2. finance
(of an enterprise or its capital structure) characterized by or containing too much debt capital in relation to revenue or profit so that too little is left over for dividend distributions; overcapitalized
3.
(of a business enterprise) having too many executives
Derived forms
top-heavily (ˌtop-ˈheavily)
adverb
top-heaviness (ˌtop-ˈheaviness)
noun
top-heavy in American English
(ˈtɑpˌhɛvi)
adjective
too heavy at the top for the base below, so as to be likely to fall over or collapse
also used figuratively, as of an organization with too many executives
Derived forms
top-heavily (ˈtop-ˌheavily)
adverb
top-heaviness (ˈtop-ˌheaviness)
noun
Examples of 'top-heavy' in a sentence
top-heavy
Clouds were building up to block its route, great towers of cumulus, top-heavy with rain.
Amanda Hemingway THE GREENSTONE GRAIL: THE SANGREAL TRILOGY ONE (2004)
The Soviet Army is top-heavy with officers, too, of all ranks.
Shah, Idries KARA KUSH (2004)
The Producer was already in New York, raising yet another million dollars to add to a top-heavy budget.
Loraine, Philip LAST SHOT (2004)
His wizened features were very even and his grey hair so abundantly thick and wavy as to make him look almost top-heavy.
Nabb, Magdalen THE MARSHAL AND THE MURDERER (2004)