topless

English

a topless woman on a beach

Etymology

Etymology tree

English top

Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.

Proto-Germanic *leusaną

Proto-Germanic *lausaz

Proto-Germanic *-lausaz

Proto-West Germanic *-laus

Old English -lēas

Middle English -les

English -less

English topless

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 female) Not wearing a garment covering the top half of the body; naked from the waist up.

   Synonyms: (of a females) bare-breasted, (of a male) 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.

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

   • 1971, “L.A. Woman”, in Jim Morrison (lyrics), 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, “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.

Derived terms

• topless dress
• toplessly
• topless meeting
• toplessness
• topless radio

Translations

lacking a top

• Bulgarian: без покрив (bez pokriv)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 无顶, 無頂 / 无顶

• Finnish: yläosaton (fi); avonainen (fi)
• Hungarian: tető nélküli
• Russian: без ве́рха (bez vérxa)
• Sicilian: â nuda; a l'ariò, a l'ària, a l'àriu
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: üstsüz
• Welsh: di-dop

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
• Icelandic: topplaus, berbrjósta
• Japanese: トップレス (ja) (topuresu)
• Māori: ū tautau
• 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)
• Sicilian: a spaḍḍa nuda; â nuda, a l'ariò, a l'ària, a l'àriu
• Slovak: hore bez
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: barbröstad (sv)
• Turkish: üstsüz
• Vietnamese: trần (vi)
• Welsh: bronnoeth

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 (hu)
• Japanese: トップレス (ja) (topuresu)
• Māori: ū tautau
• Russian: то́плес (ru) (tóplɛs)
• Sicilian: â nuda; a l'ariò, a l'ària, a l'àriu
• 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.'

   • 2019 September 19, Pete Williams, “Topless women win big as Colorado city drops ban”, in NBC News‎^[1]:

     Fort Collins, Colorado has decided it's not worth the money to fight for its ordinance banning women from appearing topless in public.

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

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)

Declension

Declension 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

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

Polish

Alternative forms

• toples

Etymology

Etymology tree

English top

Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.

Proto-Germanic *leusaną

Proto-Germanic *lausaz

Proto-Germanic *-lausaz

Proto-West Germanic *-laus

Old English -lēas

Middle English -les

English -less

English toplessubor.

Polish topless

Unadapted borrowing from English topless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔ.plɛs/

• Audio:

  (file)

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

Adjective

topless (not comparable, no derived adverb)

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 Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English topless.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /tɔ.piˈlɛ(j)s/ [tɔ.piˈlɛ(ɪ̯)s], /tɔ.piˈlɛ.si/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /tɔ.piˈlɛ(j)s/ [tɔ.piˈlɛ(ɪ̯)s], /tɔ.piˈlɛ.si/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /tɔ.piˈlɛ(j)ʃ/ [tɔ.piˈlɛ(ɪ̯)ʃ], /tɔ.piˈlɛ.si/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /tɔ.piˈlɛ(j)s/ [tɔ.piˈlɛ(ɪ̯)s], /tɔ.piˈlɛ.se/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /tɔˈplɛ.sɨ/

Adjective

topless (invariable)

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

   Fazer topless. ― To go topless.

Related terms

• top

Further reading

• “topless”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “topless”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
• “topless”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2026

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	—		—	—	—

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.