[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/topping.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / topping

[← T](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/T/)

# topping

«topping» in Mova's school dictionary: **food put on top of another food: pizza toppings, an…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a topping, toppings); adjective (topping — old UK slang); verb form (-ing of top)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A topping is food put on top of another food: pizza toppings, an ice-cream topping, a crumble topping. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#m1)

2) (old-fashioned UK slang) Topping means excellent, splendid: "What a topping idea!" (now mostly used jokingly, like in old school stories). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#m2)

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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#m3)

4) (old UK slang) "Topping" someone meant killing them; it is old crime-story language. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#m4)

### sense 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x1)
- We had pancakes with chocolate topping. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x2)
- The crumble topping was golden and crunchy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x3)
- "What a topping day!" said the boy in the old story. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x4)
- Mum is topping up my phone credit. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x5)
- Our team is topping the league this year. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x6)
- If a pizza can have 3 toppings from 6 choices, there are 20 different pizzas. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x7)
- “How topping!” said John and Michael. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/#x8)

### 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.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «topping» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/topping/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.