topper

noun17

1. •
   Something that is on top.

   • Chicken livers, of course, can also be gently fried, mashed in butter, and spread as a toast topper. — 1999
2. •
   A soft, relatively thin, piece of padding placed on top of a mattress, or forming the upper layer of a mattress.
3. •
   Ellipsis of hair topper.

   • These toppers are crafted with a lower density of hair, which makes them blend seamlessly — 2024
4. •
   Something that exceeds those previous in a series, as a joke or prank.

   • In his latest standup set, his topper is a callback to the dog bowl story.
5. •
   (India) The student who achieves the highest score in an examination.
6. •
   A top hat.

   • When King George sat down in Perylon Hall he thrust his gray topper under the chair, just as you do when you're in the Automat. — 1939
7. •
   (informal) The head or chief of an organization.

   • Cooley currently is ironing out details of the proposed kinescoping with Klaus Landsberg, topper at KTLA, over whose facilities the hour-long show has been telecast […] — 1953
8. •
   A person or tool that cuts off the top of something.

   • At first, in the pines, he had worked as a topper in his strong and boldest days, walking up the trees two hundred feet […] — 1980
9. •
   One who tops steel ingots.
10. •
    (US) A short outer jacket worn by women or children.

    • She was wearing her short pink topper and the small red hat that tilted over one eye so that she looked like a refugee starlet from the Gold Diggers film series. — 1963
11. •
    A single-handed dinghy, 11 foot (3.6 metres) in length, with only one sail.
12. •
    (slang, old-fashioned) A fine or remarkable thing or person.

    • It was a topper of a day for a Sale, although the heat would be hard on the beasts that had come a long way. — 1957
13. •
    A small secondary comic strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip, and usually by the same author.
14. •
    (slang, old-fashioned) A blow on the head.
15. •
    (Ireland) A pencil sharpener.
16. •
    (slang, old-fashioned) Tobacco left in the bottom of a pipe bowl; so called from being often taken out and placed on top of the newly filled bowl.

    • One man was faithful to his pipe, and kept / Despair and deeper misery at bay, / By seeking ever for a "topper," dropped / From some spurned pipe, but that he could not find; […] — 1875
17. •
    A three-square float, or file, used by comb-makers.