topsoil
verbEtymology From top + soil.
1
To remove the topsoil from.
topsoil
nounEtymology From top + soil.
1
Agriculture, Business, Horticulture, Lifestyle The upper layer of soil, typically most fertile and in which it is the easiest to start new plants.
- Little grew on the farm, after the floods from the hurricane washed away the topsoil.
- Without urgent action, the majority of the Earth’s topsoil could be severely degraded or lost before the end of this century. In China, topsoil is being lost fifty-seven times faster than this natural replacement process; in Europe seventeen times faster.2013, Al Gore, “Outgrowth”, in The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 183:
- Related terms
- garden soil