topmost

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree English top Proto-Germanic *-umô Proto-Indo-European *-yōs Proto-Indo-European *-tHós Proto-Indo-European *-istHos Proto-Germanic *-istaz Proto-Germanic *-umistaz Old English -mest Middle English -mest ▲ Middle English [Term?]influ. Middle English -most English -most English topmost From top + -most.

1. At or nearest to the top; uppermost; being the very highest.

   “Well! well! ^([sic]) cried I, as the coachman turn’d in at the gates, I find I shall do very well : and by the time he had wheel’d round the court, and brought me up to the door, I found myself so much the better for my own lecture, that I neither ascended the steps like a victim to justice, who was to part with life upon the topmost, nor did I mount them with a skip and a couple of strides, as I do when I fly up, Eliza! to thee, to meet it.”

   “When he has defended THE TRIPLE FORTRESS of Religion, Morality, and Literature, from it's^([sic]) foundation to the topmost battlements, must he be left on the field without the common honours of a common soldier?”

2. Of greatest status, esteem, or prestige; best.

   “If Aeschylus’ art at its topmost excellence is to be seen only in the trilogy of indissolubly connected parts, it is not true, as is sometimes maintained, that his art is to be judged exclusively on the basis of the three-part drama.”