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Showing results for top-dress. Search instead for topdresses.
Synonyms

top-dress

American  
[top-dres] / ˈtɒpˌdrɛs /

verb (used with object)

top-dressed, top-drest, top-dressing
  1. to manure (land) on the surface.


top-dress British  

verb

  1. (tr) to spread manure or fertilizer on the surface of (land) without working it into the soil

"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 top-dress

First recorded in 1725–35; top 1 + 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.

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

In the autumn, rake the mulch away and top-dress the soil on both sides for the space of two or three feet outward from the stems with well-decayed manure.

From The Home Acre by Roe, Edward Payson

After this I top-dress heavy with manure, leaving it lie on the land until spring.

From Asparagus, its culture for home use and for market: a practical treatise on the planting, cultivation, harvesting, marketing, and preserving of asparagus, with notes on its history by Hexamer, F. M.

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)

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)