topline

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Noun

topline (plural toplines)

1. The upper curvature of a horse's or dog's withers, back, and loin.
   • 2002, Ted S. Stashak, Ora Robert Adams, Adams' Lameness in Horses (page 75)

     When viewing the horse in profile, attention must be paid to the curvature and proportions of the topline.

2. Principal billing.
   • 1969, Ebony magazine (volume 24, number 9, July 1969, page 146)

     In recent weeks Cosby has, perhaps more than any other topline entertainer of the moment, been both at the pinnacle and at the crossroads.

Verb

topline (toplines, present participle toplining; past and past participle toplined)

1. (transitive) To bill (a performer) as the primary entertainer in a production.
   • 1983, John Kobal, A History of Movie Musicals: Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance (page 147)

     A popular series of musical shorts he made for Mack Sennett's company in 1930 added to his success as a radio vocalist, and had made him a star by the end of 1931, when Paramount toplined him in The Big Broadcast […]

2. (transitive) To be billed as the primary entertainer in (a production).
   • Variety [https://web.archive.org/web/20120216113023/http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050123?refCatId=16]

     [Whitney] Houston's success in music led her to topline the features "Waiting to Exhale," "The Preacher's Wife" and the telefilm "Cinderella."

   • 2009, Robert Viagas, I'm the Greatest Star

     Over the next few years he toplined three "Encores!" productions […]

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