peg top
noun
a child's wooden top that spins on a metal peg.
peg top
1 Americannoun
-
a child's wooden top that spins on a metal peg.
-
peg tops, peg-top trousers.
peg-top
2
American
[peg-top]
/ ˈpɛgˌtɒp /
adjective
peg top
1
British
noun
peg-top
2
British
adjective
Etymology
Origin of peg top1
First recorded in 1650–60
Origin of peg-top2
1860–65; adjective use of peg top (in the sense “a child's toy that spins on a peg”)
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:
Like the humming of a peg top is Count Keyserling's conversation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Slowly at first and then with a rush she came about like a peg top.
From Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors: Tales of 1812 by Barnes, James
A portly person, wearing, indeed, a frock coat, a sash, and peg top trousers, appeared in the doorway of the presidential mansion.
From A Son of the Immortals by Christy, Howard Chandler
These proved to be a peg top, a bunch of string, a small rubber ball and a golden peach pit.
From The Lost Princess of Oz by Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
They dressed alike, in the most exaggerated and outlandish costume they could afford: knee-length coats, peg-top trousers, yard-long watch chains, "ducktail" haircuts.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was the squarejawed, peg-top hero who resembled models of elegance of the Sears-Roebuck Co.
From Time Magazine Archive
In his senior year, Louis Johnson strolled beside the serpentine walks, a mandolin tucked casually under his arm, hatless and sporting the latest in peg-top trousers, the biggest man on campus.
From Time Magazine Archive
His favorite costume consists of a yellow-checked coat, peg-top pants, green porkpie hat, purple tie, yellow shoes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Perhaps if I had continued my search for the peg-top with the enthusiasm and assiduity with which I had lugged the kitchen table up to the corner cupboard, I should have found it.
From Mushrooms on the Moor by Boreham, Frank
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.
