What does "topic" mean?

Topic: An argument or reason. [Obs.] Contumacious persons, who are not to be fixed by any principles, whom no topics can work upon. Bp. Wilkins.

Additional senses

  1. 2.The subject of any distinct portion of a discourse, or argument, or literary composition; also, the general or main subject of the whole; a matter treated of; a subject, as of conversation or of thought; a matter; a point; a head.
  2. 3.(Med.) An external local application or remedy, as a plaster, a blister, etc. [Obsoles.] Wiseman.
  3. 4.Topical. Drayton. Holland.

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