Green’s Dictionary of Slang

excellent, first-rate, the best; extreme; also used adverbially (see cits. 1917, 1932).

[1876		‘Nimrod’ in Malet Annals of the Road 253: Jem Howell stands very high, being supposed to be as good a judge of what a coach horse can do as any man of his day; and as an honest servant to his employers, we may put him quite in the top hole].
1903		Sporting Times 26 Dec. 7/1: Curragh Wren — Your tale goes in unless Master has one of his top-hole moral foits on him.
1905		Sporting Times 18 Feb. 2/4: There’s a real top-hole chorus, all about fiddle deedee and tol de lol lol.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 13/2: Brown Brother is a top-hole fisherman.
1917		A. Brazil Madcap of the School 11: ‘Oh, I say!’ ‘This is top-hole!’ ‘What a chubby place!’.
1917		B. Adams Nothing of Importance (1988) 187: I say, your Stokes were bursting top-hole. We had a splendid view.
1927		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 19 May 7/5: [advt] Isn’t it simply top-hole! I don’t know how the Black Cat Cigarette people do it [...] the best cigarette I can get at 10 for 6d.
1928		(con. WWI) H.F. Cruikshank ‘So This Is Flanders!’ Battle Stories July 🌐 If you hadn’t used your fist with such top-hole effect, I believe that beggar would have got me.
1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 222: Ginger says he knows a ‘top-hole little spot not far from Monte.’.
1932		D.L. Sayers Have His Carcase 385: We tried the mag, and she was working top-hole.
1933		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 40/3: ‘To get him into top-hole condition he’d have to be fed reg’lar and all the rest of it. All that would cost money, and I ain’t got any’.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 16: I have a top-hole idea, Aunt.
1954		K. Amis letter 20 Dec. in Leader (2000) 418: I love imagining the cobberess saying to you ‘Fer a Pommie yer top-hole, sport’, and the cobber finding you on the job and talking about crook deals.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 171: We gave them a good breakfast in 1776, a fine lunch in 1812, and we’re ready to give them a top-hole dinner any time they call.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 143: A-one ramblers. Top-hole bedding plants.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 247: [T]he sale of his huge stable of top-hole chaffburners.
2000		Indep. Rev. 7 Mar. 1: What do you think of this, eh? Top-hole, what?
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 445: So, we must all pull together for the sake of the unit! That’s absolutely top hole!