topless

adjective

top·​less ˈtäp-ləs 

1

a

: wearing no clothing on the upper body

b

: featuring topless waitresses or entertainers

topless bars

c

: being a place where topless women are permitted

a topless beach

2

: being without a top

3

archaic : so high as to reach up beyond sight

and burnt the topless towers of Ilium

—Christopher Marlowe

toplessness

ˈtäp-ləs-nəs 

noun

Example Sentences

She likes to go topless on the beach.

Recent Examples on the Web

In Brazil, Facebook took down an image of a native Amazonian woman who was topless. —Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2023

In the case of some fashionable supercars, a clear majority went topless. —Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 25 Oct. 2022

Club executives took the witness stand to describe the fully nude and topless dancers (single moms and students, mostly) as well as their typical patrons. —Dallas News, 7 Mar. 2022

On Tuesday, Jennifer Lopez showed off exactly what her skincare line JLO Beauty can do with a topless photo at the top of her short promotional reel on Instagram. —Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 30 Dec. 2022

Santiago, whose Insta is a punk feed of body horror, dead-eyed portraits, heavy eyeliner, and topless photos, has had shocks in her life. —Caitlin White, SPIN, 22 Dec. 2022

Eva, aka MyLifeAsEva, shared a carousel on Instagram that included some topless bikini pics. —Seventeen.com Editors, Seventeen, 7 Nov. 2022

Foo and Foo: Models wore sheer ensembles, but it was taken a step further with one topless model who held their breasts in place of coverage. —Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY, 17 Sep. 2022

TikTok star Jordyn Jones took in a beautiful oceanfront view all while posing for a topless selfie. —Seventeen Editors, Seventeen, 7 June 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1589, in the meaning defined at sense 3