1698. Jeremy Collier, Short View, 219. The fine Berenthia, one of the Top-Characters, is impudent and profane.
1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iii. 2. I have a project of turning three or four of our most topping fellows into doggrel.
1703. Steele, Tender Husband, v. 1. Well, Jenny, you topp'd your part, indeed.
d. 1704. Brown, Works, ii. 258. The toppingest shop-keepers in the city us'd now and then to visit me.
1708. King, Art of Love, v. Th'old man receiv'd her, and exprest much kindness for his topping guest.
1709. Dampier, Voyages, ii. i. 141. Some . . . were topping merchants and had many slaves under them.
d. 1713. Ellwood, Life (Howell's), 291. These two Baptists were topping blades, that looked high and spake big.
1721. D'Urfey, Pills, ii. 22. When the world first knew creation A rogue was a top profession.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 'Rich Beggars.' There are topping citizens too, who imitate them.
1734. Hearne, Diary, 23 Jan. Topping books formerly . . . greedily bought at great prices, . . . turn'd to waste paper.
c. 1738. Gay, Squire and Cur. That politician tops his part Who readily can lie with art.
1742. Jarvis, Don Quixote, I. iii. xi. It is the toppingest thing I ever heard. Ibid., II. iii. xviii. I mean to marry her toppingly when she least thinks of it.
1743-5. Pococke, Descr. East, ii. ii. 9. There being only a few of the top families in the city who use horses.
1766. Brooke, Fool of Quality, i. 364. Setting out at top speed, he soon overtook him.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, i. Master Moses is an absolute Proteus; in every elegance at the top of the tree.
1782. Burney, Cecilia, iv. vi. You must needs think what a hardship it is to me to have him turn out so unlucky, after all I have done for him, when I thought to have seen him at the top of the tree.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Top . . . The cove was topped for smashing queer screens. Ibid., s.v. Top sawyer signifies a man that is a master genius in any profession. It is a piece of Norfolk slang, and took its rise [?] from Norfolk being a great timber county, where the top sawyers get double the wages of those beneath them.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 94. You topped your part to perfection, and I was not quite contemptible in mine.
1836. Milner, Turpin's Ride to York, i. 3. I shall never come to the scragging-post, unless you turn topsman.
1837. Barham, Ingolds. Leg., ii. 56. A young dandified lawyer, Whose air, nevertheless, speaks him quite a top-sawyer.
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xliii. Wasn't he always top-sawyer among you all? Is there one of you that could touch him or come near him on any scent? Ibid. (1853), Bleak House, ii. My Lady Dedlock has been . . . at the top of the fashionable tree.
1843. Moncrieff, Scamps of London, iv. Our hells are full of Greeks—they are the Corinthians of the order—the top sawyers.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. iii. 387. Thirty-six were cast for death, and only one was topped.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i. 61. Strawberry pottles are often half cabbage leaves, a few tempting strawberries being displayed on the top of the pottle. . . . Ask any coster that knows the world, and he'll tell you that all the salesmen in the market tops up. Ibid., ii. 137. A big pottle of strawberries that was rubbish all under the toppers.
1854-5. Thackeray, Newcomes, xv. He had paid the postboys, and travelled with a servant like a top-sawyer.
1862. Clough, The Bothee of Tober-Na-Vuolich. Shady in Latin, said Lindsay, but topping in Plays and Aldrich.
1864. Spectator, 1186. The University word shady meaning simply poor and inefficient, as when a man is said to be 'shady in Latin but topping in Greek plays,' is obviously University slang.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, xxxvi. 'See-saw is the fashion of England always, and the Whigs will soon be the top-sawyers.' 'But,' said I, still more confused, 'the King is the top-sawyer according to our proverb; how then can the Whigs be?'
