Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having a relatively great elevation; extending far upward.
- adjective Extending a specified distance upward.
- adjective Far or farther from a reference point.
- adjective Being at or near the peak or culminating stage.
- adjective Advanced in development or complexity.
- adjective Far removed in time; remote.
- adjective Slightly spoiled or tainted; gamy. Used of meat.
- adjective Having a bad smell; malodorous.
- adjective Having a pitch corresponding to a relatively large number of sound-wave cycles per second.
- adjective Raised in pitch; not soft or hushed.
- adjective Situated relatively far from the equator.
- adjective Of great importance.
- adjective Eminent in rank or status.
- adjective Serious; grave.
- adjective Constituting a climax; crucial.
- adjective Characterized by lofty or stirring events or themes.
- adjective Lofty or exalted in quality or character.
- adjective Greater than usual or expected, as in quantity, magnitude, cost, or degree.
- adjective Favorable.
- adjective Of great force or violence.
- adjective Informal Excited or euphoric.
- adjective Slang Intoxicated by alcohol or a drug, such as cocaine or marijuana.
- adjective Luxurious; extravagant.
- adjective Linguistics Of or relating to vowels produced with part of the tongue close to the palate, as in the vowel of tree.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being the gear configuration or setting, as in an automotive transmission, that produces the greatest vehicular speed with respect to engine speed.
- adverb At, in, or to a lofty position, level, or degree.
- adverb In an extravagant or luxurious way.
- noun A lofty place or region.
- noun A high level or degree.
- noun The high gear configuration of a transmission.
- noun A center of high atmospheric pressure; an anticyclone.
- noun Informal An excited or euphoric condition.
- noun Slang An intoxicated or euphoric condition induced by alcohol or a drug.
- idiom (high and dry) In a position of helplessness; stranded.
- idiom Nautical (high and dry) Out of water. Used of a ship, for example.
- idiom (high and low) Here and there; everywhere.
- idiom (on high) High in the sky.
- idiom (on high) In heaven.
- idiom (on high) In a position of authority.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In a high or lofty manner; to a great height, amount, extent, degree, etc.; eminently; powerfully; grandly; richly; extravagantly: as, to climb high; to play high (for high stakes); to live high; to bid high.
- To make high; lift up; raise; exalt.
- To rise or be at its highest point, as the tide.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word high.
Examples
-
We took notice of several high hills with groves of evergreen oak on their summits; detached hills, which we could not but consider as remains of the ancient _high places_ for idolatrous worship.
Byeways in Palestine James Finn
-
In the high places close to Florence (and with that especial lie of the land everything is a _high place_) a view is not only of foregrounds and backgrounds, river troughs and mountain lines of great variety, but of whole districts, or at least indications of districts -- distant peaks making you feel the places at their feet -- which you know to be extremely various: think of the
Laurus Nobilis Chapters on Art and Life Vernon Lee 1895
-
All men are six feet high, is not true, because _six feet high_ is not a name of everything (though it is of some things) of which _man_ is a name.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839
-
All men are six feet high, is not true, because _six feet high_ is not a name of every thing (though it is of some things) of which _man_ is
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive John Stuart Mill 1839
-
About two miles north from Rochdale lies the hamlet of Healey, a high tract of land, as its Saxon derivation seems to imply, heaʓe, _high_, and leaʓ _a pasture_, signifying the "_high pasture_."
Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) John Roby 1821
-
With its 725 sheet capacity and high processing speeds for multiple documents, the high capacity document feeder is perfect for running multipage jobs where each recipient receives a different number of pages.
-
Sets will be a little inconsistent since the bigger waves will be coming from the Southern Hemi swell … but we can still expect surf to stay consistently in the chest-shoulder high range with some head high+ peaks setting up on the lower tides.
Transworld Surf» | Transworld Surf Adam Wright - Socalsurf.com 2010
-
With its 725 sheet capacity and high processing speeds for multiple documents, the high capacity document feeder is perfect for running multipage jobs where each recipient receives a different number of pages.
-
Fortunately, this high speed digital cable Internet service doubles the speeds of the nearest competitor and calls into question whether or not slower technologies such as DSL and satellite Internet can really be called �high speed!
-
As soon as his name appeared in the bills, a report was circulated through the city that he was to be assaulted: that is to say that he had so highly offended that _high and mighty body of gentlemen_ apprentices and else who swagger in good broadcloth clothes and brass buttons in the theatre, by not leaving his bed of sickness for the amusement of their high mightinesses, that they had resolved to hiss and drive him off the stage.
-
Sinema’s swearing-in look can best be described as high femme: a hyperfeminine appearance with all the trappings, like nails, hair and high heels.
Opinion | Kyrsten Sinema's Swearing-In Look Was A Bold Queer Statement Lily Burana 2019
-
On Type High Day, which falls annually on 9/18, letterpress enthusiasts celebrate the standardized height of all American metal and wood movable type: 0.9186 inches.
-
Each year on the 18th of September we celebrate Type High Day, which has its origins in the height of type. All of the metal and wood type we use in letterpress printing, from the very smallest to the largest, measures an exact .918 inches in height.
bilby commented on the word high
I am in love with high far-seeing places
That look on plains half-sunlight and half-storm, --
In love with hours when from the circling faces
Veils pass, and laughing fellowship glows warm.
- Arthur Davison Ficke, 'I am in Love with High Far-Seeing Places'.
October 4, 2008