top-dress
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Etymology
Origin of top-dress
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Return anything too chunky to the bin, and top-dress your plants indoors or out with the good stuff.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2023
They must plow, and sow, and top-dress, and bottom-dress, and deep-drain, and surface-drain, and all the rest of it.
From No Name by Wilkie Collins
Of course, it is far better to top-dress the rows in spring than not at all.
From Success with Small Fruits by Edward Payson Roe
After this I top-dress heavy with manure, leaving it lie on the land until spring.
From Asparagus, its culture for home use and for market: a practical treatise on the planting, cultivation, harvesting, marketing, and preserving of asparagus, with notes on its history by F. M. Hexamer
I am in the dairy business and will have by winter enough manure to top-dress the field.
From One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered by Edward J. (Edward James) Wickson
We've top-dressed both several times, so balls should roll onto the greens.
From Golf Digest ● Aug. 2, 2012
Before winter sets in see that the lawn is freely top-dressed.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various
When a piece of land is to be planted in sweet potatoes, it should be top-dressed with some manure, to be dug or ploughed under a week or two before it is to be planted.
After the bed has borne a little while it is top-dressed all over with a half-inch layer of fine soil.
From Mushrooms: how to grow them a practical treatise on mushroom culture for profit and pleasure by William Falconer
To insure an extra yield of this valuable grain, the soil must be highly manured, deeply ploughed, thorough cultivated and hoed, and top-dressed with lime, house ashes, and plaster.
I prefer to use compost as a top-dressing mulch since that doubles as a fertilizer and soil-health enhancer, but you could also use a 5-10-5 fertilizer sparingly.
From Salon ● May 18, 2022
A thin top-dressing is all that is needed, assuming you mulched this spring.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2021
When it’s rotted down and mature, you’ll have a material perfect for use as a potting mix or as a top-dressing for the garden.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2015
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is also popular for top-dressing pastures at midsummer since it evaporates more slowly than some competitors.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2013
Such kinds as Snowdrops, Scillas, Chionodoxas, &c., are excellent for this purpose, and may be left for several seasons without disturbance, provided they get a top-dressing of well-decayed manure during the autumn.
From Beautiful Bulbous Plants For the Open Air by John Weathers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
