Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The upper part of the soil.
- transitive verb To place topsoil on (land).
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The surface or upper part of the soil.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The upper layer of soil; surface soil.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The most
fertile soil , easiest to start new plants in.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the layer of soil on the surface
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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South American sugar cane ethanol also relies on slash and burn agriculture on thin topsoil creating ever increasing dead zones in the rain forest.
Archive 2009-10-18 Canadian silver bug/Green Assassin Brigade 2009
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The topsoil is underlain by glacially deposited gravelly rocks and stones.
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And save what little topsoil we have - by planting more trees - before all the topsoil is washed away and we're left with nothing but sand.
Random thoughts on the economy and the stimulus frankwu 2009
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South American sugar cane ethanol also relies on slash and burn agriculture on thin topsoil creating ever increasing dead zones in the rain forest.
Crystal balls : The Five Year View Canadian silver bug/Green Assassin Brigade 2009
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As the air eagerly escaped from its chamber, it liberated two hundred and fifty cubic meters of topsoil from the grip of the artificial gravity.
365 tomorrows » 2009 » October : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009
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I could not resist digging up the thin topsoil and a little bit of the hard packed clay and shale.
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Until the Aswan Dam plugged her up, the Nile River flooded every year, spreading her chocolate waters across the land of Egypt, depositing the rich sediment of eroded topsoil from the heart of Africa to fuel another year's productivity in the fields.
Boing Boing 2008
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Our topsoil is disappearing, the materials we use for fertilizer rising in price, and other nations are developing their own mechanized agriculture.
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"It's been raining a lot, and the topsoil is loose," he said.
May 2004 2004
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The A horizon is sometimes referred to as the topsoil and contains most of the organic matter in the profile, which often gives it a darker color.
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