top-heavy

[top-hev-ee]

adjective

1. having the top disproportionately heavy; liable to fall from too great weight above.

2. relatively much heavier or larger above the center or waist than below.

   a top-heavy wrestler.

3. Finance.

   1. having a financial structure overburdened with securities that have priority in the payment of dividends.

   2. overcapitalized.

top-heavy

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

Other Word Forms

• top-heavily adverb
• top-heaviness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of top-heavy¹

First recorded in 1525–35; top ¹ + heavy

Related Words

• cumbersome 
• imbalanced www.thesaurus.com
• overloaded www.thesaurus.com
• unbalanced