topless

topless

English

a topless woman on a beach

Etymology

From top +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

topless (not comparable)

1. Lacking a top.

   The sight-seeing bus is topless to allow tourists a better view of the sights.

2. (poetic) Very high, towering.
   • late 16th century Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus:

     Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,

     And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

3. (chiefly of a woman) Not wearing a garment covering the top half of the body; naked from the waist up.

   Synonyms: (of a woman) bare-breasted, (of a man) barechested, half-naked, semi-nude, shirtless, topfree

   The council voted to allow topless swimmers on the beach.

4. (of a place) Featuring women that are naked from the waist up, often strippers or dancers.
   • 1971, Jim Morrison (lyrics), “L.A. Woman”, in L.A. Woman, performed by The Doors:

     Driving down your freeways / Midnight alleys roam / Cops in cars, the topless bars / Never saw a woman so alone

   • 1975, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Tangled Up in Blue”, in Blood on the Tracks:

     She was workin' in a topless place / And I stopped in for beer / I just kept lookin' at the side of her face / In the spotlight so clear.

   Only her closest friends knew that Jenny was working at a topless bar to help with college expenses.

Derived terms

• topless dress
• toplessly
• toplessness
• topless radio

 

Translations

lacking a top

Bulgarian: без покрив (bez pokriv) Chinese: Mandarin: 无顶, 無頂／无顶 Finnish: yläosaton (fi); avonainen Hungarian: tető nélküli Russian: без ве́рха (bez vérxa) Spanish: please add this translation if you can Turkish: üstsüz

poetic: very high, towering

Finnish: korkeana siintävä Hungarian: égbe nyúló, végtelen/irdatlan/mérhetetlen magas(ságú)

naked from the waist up

Bulgarian: гол до кръста (gol do krǎsta) Chinese: Mandarin: 無上裝／无上装 (zh) (wú shàngzhuāng), 上空 (zh) (shàngkōng) Czech: nahoře bez (cs) Danish: topløs Esperanto: nudmama Faroese: berbróstað Finnish: yläosaton (fi) French: topless (fr), seins nus German: barbusig (de), topless, oben ohne (de), busenfrei Greek: γυμνόστηθος (el) (gymnóstithos) Hungarian: félmeztelen (hu), meztelen/csupasz felsőtestű Japanese: トップレス (topuresu) Norwegian: Bokmål: toppløs, topplaus Nynorsk: topplaus Polish: toples (pl), topless (pl) Portuguese: topless (pt) Russian: (of women) с обнажённой гру́дью (s obnažónnoj grúdʹju), (of men) с го́лым то́рсом (s gólym tórsom), то́плес (ru) (tóplɛs) Slovak: hore bez Spanish: please add this translation if you can Turkish: üstsüz

featuring women that are naked from the waist up

Bulgarian: без горнище на банския (bez gornište na banskija) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: topless (fi); tissi- (fi) (colloquial) French: topless (fr) German: barbusig (de), topless Hungarian: topless Japanese: トップレス (topuresu) Maori: ū tautau Russian: то́плес (ru) (tóplɛs) Spanish: please add this translation if you can

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: col seno scoperto Spanish: en topless, de topless Swedish: topless (2), topless- (3), öppen (4)

Adverb

topless (not comparable)

1. Not wearing any clothes on the upper body.
   • 1985, Joan Morrison, Share House Blues, Boolarong Publications, page 43:

     'I saw her,' said Neptune, 'sunbaking topless.'

Translations

not wearing any clothes on the upper body

Finnish: yläosattomana Polish: toples (pl), topless (pl)

Noun

topless (plural toplesses)

1. (automotive) A convertible car having the top retracted or otherwise open.

See also

• bottomless
• monokini
• toplessness

Anagrams

• Postels, potless

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English topless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔp.ləs/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: top‧less

Adjective

topless (not comparable)

1. topless (lacking clothes on the upper part of the body)

Inflection

Inflection of topless
uninflected	topless
inflected	topless
comparative	—
		positive
predicative/adverbial		topless
indefinite	m./f. sing.	topless
	n. sing.	topless
	plural	topless
definite		topless
partitive		topless

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English topless.

Noun

topless m (invariable)

1. the state of being topless
2. a monokini or similar

Derived terms

• in topless

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Polish

Alternative forms

• toples

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English topless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔp.lɛs/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔplɛs
• Syllabification: top‧less
• Homophone: toples

Adjective

topless (not comparable)

1. topless (naked from the waist up)

Adverb

topless (not comparable)

1. topless (not wearing any clothes on the upper body)

Noun

topless m inan (indeclinable) or topless m inan

1. topless monokini

   Synonym: monokini

Declension

Declension of topless

	singular	plural
nominative	topless	toplessy
genitive	toplessu	toplessów
dative	toplessowi	toplessom
accusative	topless	toplessy
instrumental	toplessem	toplessami
locative	toplessie	toplessach
vocative	toplessie	toplessy

Further reading

• topless in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• topless in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English topless.

Adjective

topless (invariable)

1. (of a woman) topless (naked from the waist up)

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Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English topless.

Adjective

topless m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. topless

Declension

Declension of topless (invariable)

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	topless		topless	topless	topless
	definite	—		—	—	—
genitive/ dative	indefinite	topless		topless	topless	topless
	definite	—		—	—	—

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• toples

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English topless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtoples/ [ˈt̪o.ples]
• Rhymes: -oples

Adjective

topless (invariable)

1. topless (of a woman, naked from the waist up)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.