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
- top-heavily adverb
- top-heaviness noun
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.
That raises the stakes for the February jobs report, as it could drive the top-heavy S&P 500 to finally break through its recent trading range, up or down.
From MarketWatch
Europe needs such workers—and their income—to prop up a pension system so top-heavy that French retirees now outearn working age adults, according to the Luxembourg Income Study, a research agency.
It doesn’t take much to cause tumultuous stock moves in a market top-heavy with tech shares and jumpy about the prospects for artificial intelligence.
He initiated an antigraft purge and dismantled the military’s top-heavy administrative fiefs in favor of centralized, joint-combat theater commands that report directly to the Central Military Commission, which he leads.
The big wild card in 2026 is how a top-heavy market reacts to AI-inspired volatility, from fears that the bubble will burst to warnings that new technologies could upend entire industries.
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.
