Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a brimming glass.

1822

Glasgow Herald 4 Feb. 4/3: So I think it but proper, to fill a tip-topper / Of Sherry to drink to the King.

2. (tip-topsman) a dandy, a fashionable man, a sophisticated upper-class person.

1823		Observer 26 May 2: He was in fact a tip-topsman, and looked more like a Corinthian than a commoner.
1825		Bell’s Life in London 10 Apr. 2/3: I seed several people of fashion, and there vere some on ’em vith red jackets—these vere the tip-toppers.
1829		Egan Boxiana 2 Ser. II 239: Some tip-toppers on the Corinthian list were witnessed getting over the ground as ‘gaily as larks.’.
1843		Thackeray ‘Fitzboodle’s Confessions’ Fraser’s Mag Apr. 472/1: One of the first swells on [sic] town ma’am — a regular tip-topper.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 Apr. 2/3: Its result has somehow touched the ‘tip-toppers’ and caused many thousands of pounds to change hands.
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: A gentleman is a swell, a nob, a tiptopper.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 4 July 2/5: ‘Aint he a rare ’un,’ quoth Tam [...] as he cantered with the tip-toppers.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 67/1: It ain’t no good doing as the others do, we must have a tip-topper.
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone III 79: ‘Tiptoppers?’ whispered the manager.
1875		T. Frost Circus Life and Circus Celebrities 284: He is a ‘tip-topper’ of course.
1884		Leics. Chron. 24 May 12/3: I travelled with a quack doctor once; a regular tiptopper.
1889		H. Smart Long Odds II 38: ‘[Y]ou were all at me, niggle naggle, to push my way into society; and now I've landed you all amongst the tip-toppers, why, you want to go home’.
1894		‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 288: Vat a bold bloke he is to be sure! [...] If he ain’t a innercent, he is a tiptopper, an’ no mistake.
1894		Mirror of Life 6 Oct. 2/2: Frank [...] has proved hiimself a tip-topper in his class.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 86: Tiptopper, a person splendidly attired.
1901		L.T. Meade Miss Nonentity 188: It is that I should go to a first-rate boarding-school, where I can be turned into what he calls a tip-topper — that is his polite expression.
1912		M. Bancroft Shadow of Neeme 207: ‘My child, you perplex me — what is a tip- topper?’ ‘Well-born and well-bred, and as beautiful as she is well-born.’.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 214: Them skirts is got no respeck fer law – even the highest tip-toppers. They encourage a man to the rough stuff.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 171: He was a tip-topper and no mistake, who wanted everything to be in the first fashion.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 76: The tip-toppers of Harlem, the gin-guzzling [...] sex-salted gang of fast men and women.

3. anything, or anybody, excellent, first-rate.

1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 16: This day is a tip-topper.
1849		A. Harris Emigrant Family 103: Miss Katharine Bracton: she’s what I call the tip-topper of this world for everything a woman ought to be.
1852		H.M. Smythies Bride Elect 64: Our young Missis [...] as you knows now, nobody better, she’s a tip-topper — she’s an out and outer.
1855		W. Phillips Wild Tribes of London 16: There’s a young man as is summat in your line, writes and draws no end o’ things, is a reg’lar tip-topper, I can tell yer.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 15: We had a tip-topper last night, and didn’t break up till three in the morning.
1878		E. Beavan Lil Grey 70: Hooley’s is a good one — tip-topper: tip-top price too, but then there’s no humbug with it; you’re safe there; five shillings down.
1882		R. Dowling Sweet Inisfail 56: I always liked you, but George is a regular tip-topper.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 July 15/1: [of a racehorse] Lochiel will not be left at the post if he ever gets there, which is doubtful, and the fate of that beautiful tip-topper, Corythus, is somehow understood to be involved with the destiny of his former conqueror, Readleap.
1891		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 31 Jan. 2/3: Annie Lewis has been growing artistically since then, and she’s a tiptopper now.
1891		in Punch 24 Jan. 37: Here [...] is another tip-topper. What do you think of this for a storm?
1895		Truth (Sydney) 17 Feb. 3/4: Thursday night we tried a pub, / One of Sydney’s fust tip-toppers.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 19 June 2/4: A fine bold jumper, who ought to make a tip-topper over fences.
1909		W.B. Maxwell Seymour Charlton 169: You’re a good sort, a real tip-topper — right through, — and I’m grateful to you all the time for what you’ve done.
1919		Marvel 1 Mar. 4: ‘It’s a tip-topper!’ said Lopes.
1928		W. Pett Ridge Two Mackenzies 249: And, eventually, Larkham was able to give the announcement that a tip-topper had been selected. A tip-topper, nothing else.
1933		Dundee Courier 19 July 9/2: Eclair must be a real tip-topper. She improved upon everything she has previously done.
1945		Eve. Teleg. 9 Oct. 6/1: There is still another tip-topper, Third Lanark, who are showing great form.