top dollar
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
the highest price or amount of money
Literally: uppermost currency unit
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I'm paying top dollar and I expect the best.
He added, ‘ I paid top dollar, but it's a good thing I did, because there were two other people who were after the plane and I just moved quicker than they did.’
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
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Common questions
What does “top dollar” mean?
the highest price or amount of money Literally: uppermost currency unit
Is “top dollar” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
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