top-heavy
Americanadjective
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having the top disproportionately heavy; liable to fall from too great weight above.
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relatively much heavier or larger above the center or waist than below.
a top-heavy wrestler.
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Finance.
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having a financial structure overburdened with securities that have priority in the payment of dividends.
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adjective
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unstable or unbalanced through being overloaded at the top
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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
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(of a business enterprise) having too many executives
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of top-heavy
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.
As exciting as this style of play can appear, it does leave Liverpool very top-heavy.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
“The top-heavy Big Tech segment of the market is getting choppy,” according to John Burrello, a senior portfolio manager for global strategies at Invesco.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
The reason for the discrepancy is that, over the past few years, the S&P 500 has become increasingly top-heavy as shares of the largest companies pulled ahead.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
While the market advance has been top-heavy with megacap names, “the rally itself has been historic,” says Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
When the Great Six inspected my library record and found it top-heavy with adventure and science fiction, they prescribed appropriate doses of Steinbeck, Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
