Citations:top-heavy

(having a high centre of gravity):

• 1793, Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, The Complete Farmer‎, 4th edition:

  one of his reapers, when he had made up ſome wheat into ſheaves, the wheat being long-eared and top-heavy, ſaid, rain had not need meet with thoſe ſheaves before they were carried home.

• 1847, Isachar Cozzens, “Remarks on inorganic matters in vegetable products”, in New York Journal of Medicine, volume 8, page 75:

  Should this tree grow to a large size, and afterwards fall by the wind, or become top-heavy, the roots will probably rend the stone wall of the furnace, and throw the stones up and around about it.

(having an excessive number of administrators or managers):

• 1895, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Collection of Circulars of Various State Commanderies, part 4:

  Two years ago it was claimed that the National Guard of California was top-heavy ; that it had too many brigades ; too many officers. I believe that was the fact.

(of a retirement plan, having significant assets allocated to key employees):

• 1984, Commerce Clearing House, U.S. Master Tax Guide, page 195; 199:

  Thus, in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA), Congress directed its attention to this problem without regard to whether the owners were proprietors, partners, or corporate share-holders and drew up new rules for so-called “top-heavy” plans (see ¶ 540). […]
  For taxable years beginning after 1983, special, more stringent, qualification requirements must be met for plans that primarily benefit an employer's key employees. Such plans are referred to as “top-heavy” plans (Code Sec. 416).

(of a person, having a disproportionately large bust):

• 1892, Robert P. Harris, “The blended Tocci brothers and their historical analogues”, in American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, volume 25, page 467:

  These boys are decidedly top-heavy, which is due to the defects of their form and the condition of the left leg and foot, to which is added a want of muscular co-ordination.

• 2012, Cam Rascoe, Hennry Horrowitz Presents:Harlots Hustlers & Heroines, page 74:

  Hanna knew Johnny was a sucker for big breasts and she could see that he noticed them […] Hanna had a much nicer shape than Lucy but she was top-heavy, perfect.

(figurative):

• 1878, Michigan Department of Public Instruction, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, page xxx:

  It is charged against the schools, not of Michigan merely but of the United States, that they are unduly expensive, “top-heavy,” and that the intellectual and moral results from them have not been what society requires for its safety, and has a right to demand. […] The charge means, I suppose, that undue attention is given to the higher branches of study.

• 1984 December 15, John Kyper, “Remembering David Stryker”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 22, page 5:

  He was working for us on the sly at the Herald-Traveler-Record-American (before it shortened its topheavy name), then as now a reactionary, homophobic rag.