topper

Etymology

).]] From Middle English toppor, equivalent to top + -er.

noun

1. Something that is on top.
   Deal for network star Henry Morgan to sign a Majestic contract for two albums has fallen thru, with Paul Baron, newly-named artist and repertoire topper at the diskery, kiboshing a deal that virtually had been consummated between his predecessors and Music Corporation of America (MCA). 6 September 1947, “Paul Baron Nixes 2 Morgan Albums”, in Joseph G. Csida, editor, The Billboard: The World’s Foremost Amusement Weekly, volume 59, number 35, Cincinnati, Oh.: Roger S. Littleford Jr.; William D. Littleford, →OCLC, page 14, column 3
   Chicken livers, of course, can also be gently fried, mashed in butter, and spread as a toast topper. 1999, John Yeoman, Self Reliance: A Recipe for the New Millennium, page 55
   UK act the Prodigy will headline the Boiler Room, with chart toppers the Ting Tings playing at 2.15pm on the green stage. January 26, 2009, Cameron Adams, “Sniffer dogs have their Big Day Out”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-05-31
2. A top hat.
   This is another area in which it's hard to tell the dude from the twitcher, as ratting caps and deerstalkers, flying helmets and even toppers are considered acceptably eccentric. 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 61
3. Something that exceeds those previous in a series, as a joke or prank.
4. (chiefly US) A short outer jacket worn by women or children.
5. A soft, relatively thin, piece of padding placed on top of a mattress, or forming the upper layer of a mattress.
6. (India) The student who achieves the highest score in an examination.
7. (colloquial) 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 […] August 29 1953, Billboard, page 4
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, Barry Targan, Kingdoms, page 24
   The only problem is that the best egg toppers, which are different from egg cutters, are an investment — the Inox professional egg topper is $55 at surlatable.com . October 14, 2007, Amanda Hesser, “2000: Le Bernardin’s Croque-Monsieur”, in New York Times
9. One who tops steel ingots.
10. A single-handed dinghy, 11 foot (3.6 metres) in length, with only one sail.
11. A three-square float, or file, used by comb-makers.
12. (dated, slang) 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, E. R. Billings, Tobacco (page 189)
13. (dated, slang) A fine or remarkable thing or person.
14. (dated, slang) A blow on the head.
15. A small secondary comic strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip, and usually by the same author.
16. (Ireland) A pencil sharpener.