at the top of one's lungs

1. Also, at the top of one's voice. With an extremely loud voice. For example, The babies in the nursery all were crying at the top of their lungs. The noun top here refers to the greatest degree of volume (that is, loudest) rather than high pitch, a usage dating from the mid-1500s.

Example Sentences

It actually lasted, I’m told, about a minute and a half, but a minute and a half is a very long time to scream at the top of one’s lungs without pause except to suck in more breath, or to lift one’s own 200-pound weight and one’s partner’s 175-pound weight on one’s feet and head.

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For standing two hours or more with the back of one's head resting upon the cervical portion of one's spinal column, and screaming at the top of one's lungs a good portion of the time, with eyes unblinkingly and unwinkingly set upon the inconceivably splendid globe, all this we assert to be highly conducive to stiff neck and sore throat.

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Adv. loudly &c. adj. aloud; at the top of one's voice, at the top of one's lungs, lustily, in full cry.

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Adv. loudly &c. adj.. aloud; at the top of one's voice, at the top of one's lungs, lustily, in full cry.

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