topping

Everyday

1. A topping is food put on top of another food: pizza toppings, an ice-cream topping, a crumble topping. tree →
2. (old-fashioned UK slang) Topping means excellent, splendid: "What a topping idea!" (now mostly used jokingly, like in old school stories). tree →
3. (verb form) Topping is the -ing form of "top", as in "topping up" (filling up again) or "topping the charts" (being number one). tree →
4. (old UK slang) "Topping" someone meant killing them; it is old crime-story language. tree →

In the lessons

In everyday life and food lessons, children choose toppings for pizza, pancakes and desserts. In maths, toppings are used in counting and combination problems ("How many pizzas with 2 of 5 toppings?"). In old children's books, posh schoolchildren say "topping!". Phrases: "pizza topping", "top up" (topping up a phone or a drink), "topping the league".

Examples

• My favourite pizza topping is pineapple. tree →
• We had pancakes with chocolate topping. tree →
• The crumble topping was golden and crunchy. tree →
• "What a topping day!" said the boy in the old story. tree →
• Mum is topping up my phone credit. tree →
• Our team is topping the league this year. tree →
• If a pizza can have 3 toppings from 6 choices, there are 20 different pizzas. tree →
• “How topping!” said John and Michael. tree →

Note

Countable: a topping, toppings. The "excellent" sense is old-fashioned UK slang, like "spiffing". In maths problems, toppings are classic for counting combinations: order does not matter when choosing toppings.