topping

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A sauce, frosting, or garnish for food.
• noun A part or layer that forms the top.
• noun The cropped parts of plants or trees after pruning.
• adjective Highest in rank or eminence.
• adjective Chiefly British First-rate; excellent.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Specifically, in tobacco-growing, the removal of the budded or blossoming summit of the plant in order that its strength may be thrown into the leaves.
• Rising above all others; loftiest; overtopping.
• Surpassing; towering; preëminent; distinguished.
• Lofty; pretentious; assuming; arrogant.
• Fine; well; excellent.
• noun The act of one who tops.
• noun Nautical, the act of pulling one extremity of a yard or boom higher than the other.
• noun The act of reducing to an exact level the points of the teeth of a saw.
• noun That which tops; the upper part of anything; especially, a crest of hair, feathers, etc., upon the head: said of a forelock or topknot, an egret, the mane of a horse, etc.
• noun plural That which is cut off in topping, as the branches of a tree.
• noun plural That which comes from hemp in the process of hatcheling.
• noun The tail of an artificial fly, used by anglers, usually a feather from the crest of the golden pheasant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Rising above; surpassing.
• adjective Hence, assuming superiority; proud.
• adjective Slang Fine; gallant.
• noun The act of one who tops; the act of cutting off the top.
• noun (Naut.) The act of raising one extremity of a spar higher than the other.
• noun That which comes from hemp in the process of hatcheling.
• noun (Angling) The tail of an artificial fly.
• noun something placed on top of another thing, such as a sauce or garnish on food; ; an ice-cream cone with chocolate fudge topping.
• noun (Naut.) a large, strong tackle employed to raise or top the end of a gaff, or of a boom.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb Present participle of top.
• adjective UK, informal, dated wonderful
• noun any food item added on top of another, such as sprinkles on ice cream or pepperoni on pizza
• noun The act of cutting off the top of something.
• noun nautical The act of raising one extremity of a spar higher than the other.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective excellent; best possible
• noun a flavorful addition on top of a dish