silver top

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

silver top (countable and uncountable, plural silver tops)

1. (UK) Full cream milk, normally homogenised and pasteurised, having a silvery top to the bottle.
2. (slang) An old person.
   • 1885, Henry Lee, “[Speech to Harvard Club of New York]”, in John T. Morse, Jr., editor, Memoir of Colonel Henry Lee, Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., published 1905, →OCLC, pages 135–136:

     Still I must confess that I was shocked at the president's complaint of the senility of the present Board of Overseers, […] as absurd as the assertion in one of your journals, that your Mr. Evarts 'was too old for a senator' and that he 'was too old to change his mind.' […] I contend that these charges are libellous, both as against Mr. Evarts and the Overseers. Still there are younger Alumni and you can, if you see fit, in your next election, drop some of us silver-tops and insert some younger graduates. Remember, however, that 'striving to do better, oft we mar what's well.'

   • 1922 December, W. D. Gatch, J. R. Eastman (commentator), “Surgical Aspects of Endocrinology”, in Journal of the Indiana State Medical Association, volume 15, number 12, Fort Wayne: The Association, →ISSN, page 429:

     Just ask yourselves this question, you older men, you silver-tops here—What was done with toxic thyroid disease before men like Charles Mayo, the elder Kocher, Crile, Miles F. Porter and other men established the surgery of toxic thyroid upon a fairly rational basis?

   • 1997 June 12, Raj Secura, “Ann Lander bashes men (again)!”, in soc.men‎^[1] (Usenet):

     As we all become "Silver tops" as seniors are referred to, we all may have problems around our sexuality, not the least of being, can we get it and keep it up.

   • 2008 August 30, Joe Orthodox, “The Palin Pick”, in alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox‎^[2] (Usenet):

     Biden is old enough to be Obama's daddy. In fact, I'm betting he and the white silver tops in the Democratic leadership were rooting for him because they're expecting to "own our boy" when he's in the WH.

   • 2011, Patton Oswalt, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 260:

     Peter's Aunt May also gets a lot more screen time in this installment, and she's always giving heartfelt advice. It's good to see a superhero movie finally giving some consideration to us "silver tops"!

   • 2022 October 13, Charlie Carey, quoting Kath-Ann Terrett, “B.C. nurses rally outside VCH, as Hospital Employees' Union ratifies new agreement”, in CityNews‎^[3], Vancouver, archived from the original on 2023-01-10:

     "It takes four years to get educated — we don't have four years. You know, us 'silver tops' are leaving the profession or retiring. I'm 60 and I'm still working," she said, adding she is delaying her retirement due to the challenges facing healthcare workers.

Synonyms

• (old person): geriatric, oldster, senior citizen; see also Thesaurus:old person

Coordinate terms

• gold top
• green top

Anagrams

• liver spot, overslipt, overspilt, oversplit