Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to have sexual intercourse with.

1603		Shakespeare Othello V ii: Cassio did top her.
c.1614		Beaumont & Fletcher Bonduca III v: Ambitious salt-itch slaves: Romes master sins, The mountain Rams topt your hot mothers.
1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden IV iv: [He] Has never top’d her in the way we treat of, / Before he wed her.
1686		Villiers ‘Lady of Pleasure’ Miscellaneous Works 41: So down into the Stygian Lake she [i.e. Nell Gwynn] dropt, To meet the Prince she had so often topt.
1922		in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1988) 99: He topped her three times before breakfast.
1934		in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1988) 88: The doctor crawled over there and topped her.
1941		(con. 1900s) in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 763: Gent tops the lady, they’re a-putting up coal.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] He had come home from the movie [...] and found the old man topping a broad from Herky’s bar.
1961		C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 158: He is, er, ah, topping her.
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 224: Me and my buddy, we made a plot, we was going to fuck every whore that had a cock. / Ain’t but one thing my buddy done wrong, / he topped a whore with her sickness on.
1992		Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore II 738: Floyd just topped her whenever he wanted to.

2. to oppose.

1641

R. Baillie Letters (1841) I 390: Whill Argyle topes this nomination [...] because of irresponsableness to the law for his debts, there fell a verie foule flyting betwixt the two .

3. to impose upon, to intrude.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1714		S. Centlivre Wonder! I ii: What, do you top your second-hand jests upon your father, hussy, who knows better what’s good for you than you do yourself?

4. to insult.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: He thought to have Topt upon me, c. he design’d to have Put upon me, Sharpt me, Bullied me, or Affronted me.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

5. (gay) to take the role of the dominant or sadistic partner; thus topped, subjected to sadistic sex.

2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 545: I’m topping* Henry Tyler’s brother. *A top is an S & M dominant. A bottom is a submissive.
2005		E. White My Lives 137: I have to pay someone if I wanted to be topped, and I always want to be topped.

6. (UK teen) of a boy, to caress a girl’s breasts.

2006

Guardian Family 10 June 5/5: He’s snogged, yes, and he’s pulled, and the other day he topped one [...] Felt under her top, what d’you think?