top v.3
1. (also top off) to execute by hanging.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 16: He being known as an old Practitioner, will certainly be cast and top’d, alias hang’d. | |
| Narrative of Street-Robberies 28: He [...] delighted to see the Whores now and then put to their Shifts, that they might learn to live, when the Finisher of the Law had topp’d all their Cullies. | |
| Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 118: To be hang’d To be Topt. | |
| (con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in (1999) xxix: To be Topp’d or Scragg’d To be Hang’d. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: Ready to be topped, going to be hanged. | |
| Autobiog. (1930) 292: Topt signifies hanged. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Vocab. of the Flash Lang. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Tom and Jerry; A Musical Extravaganza I vi: You can hang yourself with it as elegantly as if Jack Ketch topped you at Tyburn. | |
| Times 30 June 5/5: The prisoner [...] said that he not care if he was topped (hanged); and Jones said that [...] he did not care if he was lagged (transported). | |
| ‘Poll Tomkinson’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 15: So at eight one morn, Bill Gubbins got topp’d, So he croak’d like a cock for Poll Tomkinson. | |
| Sixteen-String Jack 128: There never vos anything half so pretty, since the crack for vich Dick vas topped at Tyburn. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: Me? me a square un, vy I’d be topped first. | |
| Cork Examiner 6 Feb. 4/4: Thirty-six were cast for death, and only one was topped (hanged). | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 97/1: He shook like a ‘bloke’ that was on the point of being ‘topped.’. | |
| ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Jan. 216: I would rather be ‘topt’ at once, and be out of my misery, than remain in prison all my days. | |
| Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: [T]o to be hanged is to be topped, tucked up, turned up, stretched. | |
| Term of His Natural Life (1897) 137: Fergusson was topped at Hobart Town. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Cropped - Hanged. Sometimes, topped. | |
| Leaves from a Prison Diary I 17: They [i.e. pimps] have too wholesome a dread of being ‘topped’ (hanged) to add murder to their list of other accomplishments. | |
| Times 14 Sept. n.p.: ‘Capital Punishment.’ Jack, my dear fellow, they top a lag out here (W. Aust.) for slogging a screw [F&H]. | |
| Tales of the Old Regime 213: Until you fellers are topped off we’ve got to stay here. | |
| Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper 27 Nov. 1/3: Thomas Daley [...] under sentence of death [said] he would rather be ‘topped’ [...] than be sentenced to penal servitude for life. | |
| My Life in Prison 248: I don’t believe in topping a guy. | |
| Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 24: What’s the rope, anyway? Nuffink! Me bruvver was topped; me cousin was sent to the chair in the States. | |
| Stealing Through Life 256: Remember his caper? Slugged two coppers; his partner was topped. | |
| We Who Are About to Die 249: If they top him, you can cancel it, can’t you? | |
| Gilt Kid 61: He’d get topped for that. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 113: Dreamt I was topped again, last night. | |
| Letters from the Big House 30: The story of the time he was near being topped. | |
| No Hiding Place! 192/2: Topped. Hanged. | |
| Scarperer (1966) 151: They’ll have to carry you out if you’re topped. | |
| In For Life 139: Those who were waiting to be ‘topped’ went to the movies with the rest of us. | |
| (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 92: If any crazed lag killed one of the screws [...] we’d all be topped. | |
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 48: Top, v. To receive capital punishment. | |
| Norman’s London 23: He [...] wouldn’t show no mental agitation even if he was going to get topped in the morning. | |
| (con. 1940s) Monkey Off My Back (1972) 98: They’re gonna top me, soon. | |
| (con. c.1910) in Samuel East End Und. 131: I was sure I’d get topped [...] I used to imagine a line where the trap was and practice stepping into the trap. | |
| (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 35: He was reprived when they decided to stop topping people. | |
| Mr Blue 50: I don’t think they’ll top him. He’ll get a reversal or a commutation or something. [Ibid.] 337: Ninety-one men were topped on Folsom’s gallows until California went to the gas chamber. |
2. to kill, to murder.
| Age (Melbourne) 5 Apr. 7/4: Assault and Robbery [...] He pulled her away again, and she and the other cabman called out to the prisoner some slang expression which he thought was, ‘top him, Jack’. | |
| They Drive by Night 13: Pompey or being topped like that poor bastard Allen. | |
| Look Long Upon a Monkey 30: Don’t care if I do get topped. | |
| Crust on its Uppers 41: He nearly topped a screw [...] with a mailbag needle. | |
| Thief 228: Well if you ain’t topped – who the hell was it got creamed in that Caddy? | |
| Villain’s Tale 140: ‘They won’t put you away. They can’t’ [...] ‘They’ll be a lot of aggro they do. I tell you, I’ll wind up topping someone. . .’. | |
| (con. c.1910) in Samuel East End Und. 122: Bleeding murder will be done here if we’re not careful. Somebody will get topped. | |
| Doing Time 198: top: to kill. He ‘topped himself’ means he committed suicide. | |
| He Died with His Eyes Open 14: They topped him in one place and dumped him here. | |
| (con. 1964-65) Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 279: ‘He’s gonna to top you if you don’t do something’. | |
| Breakfast on Pluto 45: I think what put the tin hat on it was when they decided to top young Laurence Feely. | |
| Guardian Rev. 28 Jan. 5: She can’t be tried a second time for topping him. | |
| Dead Point (2008) [ebook] People say I topped Marco. Bullshit. Wouldn’t fucken waste my time. | |
| Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] How did we get to over? [...] Because Donny tops himself? | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | All the Colours 123: The Provies topped a judge. | |
| Scrublands [ebook] ‘[M]y article this morning all but convicting Swift of topping the girls’. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 653: ‘I hope you’re not dreaming of topping yourself today Love’. |
In compounds
a hangman.
| Barley-Breake Divb: A nimble Ape his topman strait will be / And hangs vp Streton, whilst a Monkie did scoffe . |
a hangman.
 | (ref. to 1739) Retrospective Rev. (London) 7:1 283: [Dick Turpin] was carried in a cart to the place of execution on Saturday April 7 1739 [...] and after speaking near half an hour to the topsman, threw himself off the ladder, and expired directly. | |
| Turpin’s Ride to York I iii: I shall never come to the scragging-post, unless you turn topsman. | |
| (con. 1703) Jack Sheppard (1917) 34: As the topsman remarked to poor Tom Sheppard afore he turned him off. |
In phrases
to commit suicide.
| ‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Topping one’s self — Committing suicide. | |
| Prisoner’s Tale 166: Topped himself last night, he did. Hung himself in his cell ... | |
| Down and Out 159: Not to top herself, surely? | |
| Llama Parlour 187: If I really had meant to top myself, wouldn’t I have left a goddamned note? | |
| Guardian G2 16 Aug. 8: If you think I’m going to top myself [...] you’re mad! | |
| Turning (2005) 146: She wondered if one day she’d ever work up the guts to top herself. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | IOL News 2 Oct. 🌐 ‘If it was their editor I’d want to top myself,’ he crowed, using British slang for ‘suicide’. | |
| Decent Ride 76: The jumpers are usually gadges: very seldom dae ye git fanny tryin tae top itsel that wey. | |
| Glorious Heresies 346: Poor Ryan, poor poor Ryan, don’t you know he tried to top himself? Para-fucking-cetamol, like an amateur. | |
| August Snow [ebook] ‘Remember the gun her husband used to top himself and the girl?’. | |
| Scrublands [ebook] ‘He’s dead. Topped himself [...] Blew his brains out with a shotty’. |
In exclamations
(Aus.) dismissive excl., var. on go to hell!
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Oct. 1/1: Ten invites to-fight, 10 invites to go and get topped, and 500 invites to have drink has been part of the programme since the first issue. |
an excl. or mild oath.
| Sporting Times (London) 15 Feb. 3/2: ‘I’ll go down on my bloomin’ benders [...] an’ swear as what I’ve said’s the truth [...] top me if it ain’t’. | |
| Cockney At Home 185: Why, lumme, top me! |