toplofty
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- toploftily adverb
- toploftiness noun
Etymology
Origin of toplofty
First recorded in 1820–30; back formation of earlier toploftical, extracted from top loft “the uppermost story, topmost gallery”; see top 1, lofty
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.
Reading the toplofty Mr. Grantham, one can almost hear the voice of Shakespeare’s Puck—“What fools these mortals be.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
This settled quality makes Trilling’s letters a bit toplofty and dull.
From New York Times • Oct. 1, 2018
The only character in End of Summer untouched by the money is a toplofty old scientist who characterizes the rest of the cast as "the great mass of the uninformed and the inexact."
From Time Magazine Archive
Later, still fuming, toplofty Paul Butler charged "absolute sabotage," demanded that CBS carry the film with advance notice of its showing.
From Time Magazine Archive
But all their gay upper works, so toplofty and frail, showed a gleaming white front to the western sun.
From Gideon's Band A Tale of the Mississippi by Cable, George Washington
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.
