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Sleep like a topMeaningSleep soundly. OriginSimiles of the 'like a' type usually relate some verb with a noun that possesses the property the simile is aiming to convey; for example, 'drink like a fish', 'go over like a lead balloon'. Why 'top', or why 'log' in the related term 'sleep like a log' for that matter?
The expression 'sleep like a top' is quite old and is recorded from at least 1693, when it appeared in William Congreve's The Old Batchelour:
Incidentally, 'sleep like a log' apparently derives from the immobility of logs, like tops, although some have suggested it to derive from the sound of sawing being like the sound of snoring. Phrasefinder is also on
Tudor Phrases and Sayings - a book on the meanings and origins of the phrases and sayings that Shakespeare and Henry VIII used that we use still use every day. |
Tops, or more correctly spinning-tops', were popular amusements in the days before children had access to toys requiring batteries. The British Museum has on display tops from Egypt, dating from around 1250 BC. When a top is spinning well the precessional effect causes its axis to remain stationary and it can appear to be still, i.e. 'sleeping'. 
