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  • peg top
    peg top
    noun
    a child's wooden top that spins on a metal peg.
  • peg-top
    peg-top
    adjective
    wide at the hips and narrowing to the ankle.

peg top

1 American  

noun

  1. a child's wooden top that spins on a metal peg.

  2. peg tops, peg-top trousers.


peg-top 2 American  
[peg-top] / ˈpɛgˌtɒp /

adjective

  1. wide at the hips and narrowing to the ankle.

    peg-top trousers; peg-top skirts.


peg top 1 British  

noun

  1. a child's spinning top, usually made of wood with a metal centre pin

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

peg-top 2 British  

adjective

  1. (of skirts, trousers, etc) wide at the hips then tapering off towards the ankle

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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 James Barnes

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 Howard Chandler Christy

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 L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

He was the squarejawed, peg-top hero who resembled models of elegance of the Sears-Roebuck Co.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Bergdorf Goodman: pre-1914 tendencies with silhouettes narrowing at bottom, peg-top evening skirts, slim skirts slit to the knee, and a general up-in-front, down-in-back movement.

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

His coat was of a strange cut, his trousers were of the peg-top description, while a magnificent pair of "Dundreary" whiskers decorated his manly face.

From The Childerbridge Mystery by Guy Newell Boothby

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