Definition of "topknot" [top•knot]

• A crest or knot of hair or feathers on the crown of the head. (noun)
• A decorative ribbon or bow worn as a headdress. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She wore a false front, which she called a topknot, the small, crimped, deep-brown mohair curls of which were bound about her forehead with a bit of black velvet ribbon, while gray hairs straggled from underneath to make the patent sham more transparent still; and over her topknot she wore a rusty black cap that enclosed the keen monkeyish face like a ruff."
• "This last is observed in Burma and Laos, but not in Siam and Camboja where is substituted for it the Kôn Chũ̆k or shaving of the topknot, which is allowed to grow until the eleventh or thirteenth year."
• "His long hair, pure white, was twisted up in a kind of topknot and fastened there by pins of dull gold."