Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A child's toy, commonly in the form of a conoid or pear, made to spin on its point, usually by drawing off a string wound round its surface or stem, the motion being sometimes continued by means of a whip.

2. (n.) A plug, or conical block of wood, with longitudinal grooves on its surface, in which the strands of the rope slide in the process of twisting.

3. (n.) The highest part of anything; the upper end, edge, or extremity; the upper side or surface; summit; apex; vertex; cover; lid; as, the top of a spire; the top of a house; the top of a mountain; the top of the ground.

4. (n.) The utmost degree; the acme; the summit.

5. (n.) The highest rank; the most honorable position; the utmost attainable place; as, to be at the top of one's class, or at the top of the school.

6. (n.) The chief person; the most prominent one.

7. (n.) The crown of the head, or the hair upon it; the head.

8. (n.) The head, or upper part, of a plant.

9. (n.) A platform surrounding the head of the lower mast and projecting on all sides. It serves to spread the topmast rigging, thus strengthening the mast, and also furnishes a convenient standing place for the men aloft.

10. (n.) A bundle or ball of slivers of comkbed wool, from which the noils, or dust, have been taken out.

11. (n.) Eve; verge; point.

12. (n.) The part of a cut gem between the girdle, or circumference, and the table, or flat upper surface.

13. (n.) Top-boots.

14. (v. i.) To rise aloft; to be eminent; to tower; as, lofty ridges and topping mountains.

15. (v. i.) To predominate; as, topping passions.

16. (v. i.) To excel; to rise above others.

17. (v. t.) To cover on the top; to tip; to cap; -- chiefly used in the past participle.

18. (v. t.) To rise above; to excel; to outgo; to surpass.

19. (v. t.) To rise to the top of; to go over the top of.

20. (v. t.) To take off the or upper part of; to crop.

21. (v. t.) To perform eminently, or better than before.

22. (v. t.) To raise one end of, as a yard, so that that end becomes higher than the other.