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
It may be desirable to top-dress with gypsum near the end of the rainy season to stimulate the growth of the plant.
From One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered by Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James)
First he tells me to top-dress the upper lot, and then right off he wants me to harness up and go to the mill.
From A Princess in Calico by Black, Edith Ferguson
It is a great nuisance for a public man who is liable to come home late at night to have to top-dress his head before he can retire.
From A Guest at the Ludlow and Other Stories by Edgar Wilson
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 Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James)
We've top-dressed both several times, so balls should roll onto the greens.
From Golf Digest ● Aug. 2, 2012
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.
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 Falconer, William
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.
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
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
This is no mere top-dressing — not a mulch layer, but a deliberate foundation 4 or 5 inches deep into which the garden is planted.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 21, 2022
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
He has to undergo a bath there, and feels as chilly when his top-dressing of grime is removed as you and I would be were we turned naked into the streets.
From The Dover Road Annals of an Ancient Turnpike by Harper, Charles G.
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.
