toppled

verb

past tense of topple
as in fell
to go down from an upright position suddenly and involuntarily the tower of blocks toppled even though I bumped into it ever so slightly

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of toppled Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighborhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles. — Leah Willingham, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2026 The winds toppled trees in New York City, with some landing on top of parked cars. — Kyle Reiman, ABC News, 26 Sep. 2026 His daughter's husband, who drank heavily, toppled off his boat and drowned. — Kamala Thiagarajan, NPR, 20 Sep. 2026 Zak’s performance on Friday was quite nice for Wauconda, which toppled previously unbeaten Grayslake North 48-14 in a Northern Lake County Conference game. — Chicago Tribune, 19 Sep. 2026 Earlier in the summer, high surf toppled a lifeguard tower at Crystal Cove after pushing several feet of sand off the beach. — Michele Gile, CBS News, 17 Sep. 2026 Four people were taken to the hospital Monday after a construction rig toppled onto three vehicles and a construction container in Miami, trapping two workers and igniting a vehicle fire, authorities said. — Sophia Compton, FOXNews.com, 14 Sep. 2026 Some of the figures were arranged together on rolling carts, others stood alone, and many were toppled over in the dust as a result of the previous week’s chaos. — Jesse McLaren, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026 And two Providence city councilors who stood as a roadblock against it were toppled. — Antonia Noori Farzan, The Providence Journal, 10 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for toppled
  1. fell
  2. stumbled
  3. tripped
  4. slipped
  5. tumbled
Verb
  • Yet trees that took a millennium to grow can be felled in under an hour.
    — Annika Hammerschlag, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Vines are pulled away from fences, and sometimes trees are even felled.
    — The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Sep. 2026
Definition of fell
Verb
  • Colorado stumbled out of its Big 12 opener with a 23-13 loss to Baylor, dropping Coach Prime's Buffaloes to 2-2 and looking like (potentially) the worst team in the conference.
    — Amber Harding OutKick, FOXNews.com, 30 Sep. 2026
  • A couple of years later, Noah Kravitz of Oxford, unaware of Müyesser and Pokrovskiy’s solution, stumbled on Graham’s conjecture in an online archive of unsolved problems.
    — Shalma Wegsman, Quanta Magazine, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of stumbled
Verb
  • Since then, price has completely round-tripped the move, giving back the entire post-earnings gap and settling back into the mid-$250s.
    — Josh Brown,Sean Russo, CNBC, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Thomas Maulson alleged a deputy tripped him while handcuffed, causing injuries that required 13 stitches.
    — Frank Vaisvilas, jsonline.com, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of tripped
Verb
  • As the Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho slipped past the Florida Panthers defense for a breakaway, the Florida Panthers’ new goaltender set up in his crease.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The Latino officers who spoke to The Times said the department has for too long prioritized the promotion of Black members of the force to leadership roles while the representation of Latinos in the highest ranks has slipped.
    — Libor Jany, Los Angeles Times, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of slipped
Verb
  • Meta Platforms — Shares of the Facebook and WhatsApp owner tumbled more than 3% as traders cashed in on the stock’s recent rally.
    — Ananya Chetia,Fred Imbert, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026
  • But the number of students enrolled in the curriculum has tumbled dramatically this year.
    — Rafael Carranza, ProPublica, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of tumbled

Browse Nearby Words

topple
toppled
topples
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Toppled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/toppled. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of heterodox

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All