top-heavy

top-heavy (comparative more top-heavy, superlative most top-heavy)

1. having a high centre of gravity, and liable to topple
   • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

     Legion: Your new platform is inefficient. It has low-volume hydraulics and is top-heavy.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:top-heavy.
2. (of an organization) having an excessive number of administrators or managers
3. (of a retirement plan) Having a significant portion of the plan assets allocated to key employees to the detriment of lower-wage employees.
   • 2017 September 10, IRS, “4.72.5 Top-Heavy Plans”, in Internal Revenue Service‎:

     A defined benefit plan is top-heavy if […] the present value of the accrued benefits (PVAB) under the plan for the key employees exceeds 60 percent of the PVAB under the plan for all employees.

4. (of a person, typically a woman) having a disproportionately large upper body, especially the bust
   • 1941, “Fashion”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 112, page 52:

     "My figure is topheavy, and I always thought a woman with a large bust had to look mature. Now I know better." An all-in-one girdle is a lifesaver for women like Miss B.

   • 1970, John McIntosh, The Stonefish, page 112:

     The top-heavy woman finished her whisky. She left fatty finger marks on the glass.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:top-heavy.
5. (slang) Drunk.
   • 1886, “A field-day among the city guardians”, in Punch, volume 90, page 61:

     He who confines his drink to the same level as that of the poor unreasoning soul-less animals, who never take too much and are never “top-heavy,” cannot avoid irritation.

• top-heavy fraction
• top-heavy with drink

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary