[a. F. toupet tuft of hair, esp. over the forehead, deriv. (in form dim.) of OF. toup, top, tup, tuft of hair, foliage, etc.; ad. *LG. topp- OHG. zopf top, tuft, summit; cf. OFris. top tuft, top, ONorse toppr top, tuft, lock of hair: see TOP sb.1]
1. = TOUPEE.
1729. Art of Politicks, 10. Think we that modern words eternal are? Toupet, and Tompion, Cosins, and Colmar Hereafter will be called by some plain man A Wig, a Watch, a Pair of Stays, a Fan.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, vi. These fadeurs, which every gentleman with a toupet thinks himself obliged to recite to an unfortunate girl.
1863. Cornh. Mag., VII. 395. Wigs are dangerous unless frankly avowed. A toupet may easily escape detection.
† b. transf. = TOUPEE b. Obs.
1728. Fielding, Love in Sev. Masques, Epil. From you then—ye toupets—he hopes defence.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, Wks. 1883, VII. 495. A couple of brocaded or laced-waistcoated toupets … with sour screwed up half-cocked faces.
2. † The forelock of a horse or other animal (obs.); a thick head of hair (in quot., of a negro).
1797. Sporting Mag., X. 295. The Tuft or Toupet, that part of the mane which lies between the two ears.
1834. Southey, Doctor, iii. (1862), 5. Some of the inhabitants of Congo make a secret fob in their woolly toupet.
3. attrib., as toupet-coxcomb, -man, -wig; toupet-titmouse, the Crested Titmouse.
1731. Fielding, Mod. Husb., I. ix. I meet with nothing but a parcel of toupet coxcombs, who plaster up their brains upon their periwigs.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VII. vi. 35. No mere toupet-man; but all manly.
a. 1784. Pennant, Arct. Zool. (1785), II. 423. Titmous. Toupet … feathers on the head long, which it erects occasionally into a pointed crest, like a toupet.
1884. E. Yates, Rec. & Exper., II. 238. A carefully arranged toupet-wig.
Hence Toupeted nonce-wd. a., wearing a toupet.
1903. Smart Set, IX. 53/2. We go in to dinner with the toupeted colonels.
