TOPOGRAPHY. In military history, a description or draught of some particular place, or small tract of land, as that of a fortification, city, manor or tenement, garden, house, castle, fort, or the like; such as engineers set out in their drawings, for the information of their prince or general. Hence a topographical chart—Carte Topographique.
TOPSYTURVY. Upsidedown, or, as our old authors more properly wrote it, (to use Mr. Tooke’s words in his Diversions of Purley,) Up so down; bottom upward. It corresponds with the French term, Sans dessus dessous; without top or bottom: i. e. a situation of confusion, in which you cannot discern the top from the bottom, or say which is the top and which the bottom. When a battalion is so awkwardly managed, either through the ignorance of the chief who gives the several words of command, or through the dullness of the officers and soldiers who are to execute them, that the grenadiers get where the light infantry should stand, and the rest of the companies out of their proper fronts and positions, such a battalion may be said to be topsyturvy. There is a sea-phrase in familiar use among the military, which means the same thing, viz. to capsize, renverser. Chavirer quelque chose, comme une embarcation, &c. To turn upside down, as to capsize a piece of ordnance. Hence, figuratively, to capsize a battalion, which means the same as to club a battalion. See [To Club].
TOQUE, Fr. A velvet cap with the sides turned up, and flat at the top. The Cent Suisses, or the French king’s Swiss body guard, wore the toque during the French monarchy.
TOR. A tower or turret.
TORCHES, (Torches, Fr.) In military matters, are lights used at sieges, &c. They are generally made of thick ropes, &c.
TORCHIS, Fr. Mud-clay, with which cottager’s huts, &c. are made in most countries.
TORE, Fr. See [Torus].
TORUS. In architecture, a large round moulding used in the bases of columns.
TORLAQUI. A sort of priest in Turkey.
TORNADO. A Portuguese word which is used on the southern coasts of Africa, to express furious whirlwinds that are often fatal to mariners and seamen. Dr. Johnson calls it generally, a hurricane; a whirlwind.