high adj.2
1. (US) impressive, attractive, splendid.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hist. of the Two Orphans III 157: I’ll tell you a high story of him, begging the gentleman’s pardon. | |
| Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 7: Impudent scoundrel! but [...] I must humour him. – You’re a high fellow. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Glance at N.Y. I iv: When he takes out dat sword, and comes down to de front and says something – ain’t dat high? | |
| N.Y. in Slices 120: I say, Jim! ain’t this high? Have yer salooned yer gal yet? | |
| G’hals of N.Y. 19: I’ll be ridin’ out on the avenue, with my green coat and red neckercher, and a nice little heifer by my side, as gallus as all around. Won’t that be h-i-g-h? | |
| ‘A Ballad apout de Rowdies’ in Hans Breitmann About Town 23: Und de rowdies shkreemed out a laffin, / Und saidt dat de fun vas ‘high’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Oct. 2/3: ‘Oh, Maudie, love ! Isn’t this ecstatic bliss? Ain’t you up to your ears in joy?’ [...] ‘Well, yes, Artie, love; it’s pretty high’. | |
| ‘The Absent-Minded Mule’ in Absent-Minded Mule and Verses 7: Don’t forget to keep an optic on a little chap with ears [...] He’s an absent-minded beggar, and his style is pretty high—. | |
 | Independent (Honolulu, HI) 25 Feb. 6/4: Those ladies down upon the beach. Jeminy! [...] In bathin’ suits that’s shockin’ high. | |
| ‘Extricating Young Gussie’ in Man with Two Left Feet 28: She stands high with him. | |
| Rome Haul 98: And their talk! High jabber [...] Jabber! Jesus! | |
| Grass in Piccadilly 103: I bet there’s some high goings-on on five this morning. |
2. (orig. US) expensive.
| Lantern (N.O.) 14 May 3: He says everything is lovely and their booze comes high. | |
| the Devil rides outside 128: ‘[F]ood is high here. There’s no need for you to spend any more on me’. | |
| Source Aug. 129: I’m high as crap. I’m so high [priced] I amaze myself. |
3. (Aus. und.) dangerous, subject to discovery.
| Truth (Sydney) 29 Sept. 7/3: Wot they pulls, so he can wing / When as how he gets the offis / For to nit if things is high. |
4. (US) exaggerated.
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 2 Mar. 3/1: Then, without taking his fishy eye from tbo orator he slowly backed into the shop and shut the door. The story was too ‘I’ for him. | |
| Big Con 28: You’ll know you’re getting them [i.e. anecdotes] too high and can cut them down. |
5. (W.I.) fashionable, stylish.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Anancy Stories and Dialect Verse 16: A wen since Puss get so high dat him can prims off himself eena backra book? |
6. (drugs) pure [a sample of such a drug has a high percentage of the stated drug, rather than of the cut n.1 (10c)].
| Scene (1996) 18: The heroin the boy was picked up with was high, almost a hundred per cent. |
In phrases
(US) what do you think of that?
| Innocents at Home 334: His funeral ain’t going to be no slouch, – solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat, – how’s that for high? | |
| Burlington (IA) Hawk Eye 16 Apr. 1/6: The slang phrase of ‘How is that for high?’ was started by him [i.e. Henry Ward Beecher] while playing a game of old sledge or seven-up. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 15 Jan. 171/2: I have it on good authority that a rigid Presbyterian, who has caused trouble in one of the local churches by his stern opposition to dancing in an adjoining hall, was seen on the racecourse on New Year's Day laying ‘two to one on the brown nag.’ How is that for high. | |
| Sporting Times 18 Oct. 1/1: [of an inscription on a horse’s gravestone] How’s that for high? | |
| Saddle and Mocassin 315: ‘How’s that for high, boys?’ concluded the narrator. | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 8 Feb. 7/4: How is this for high? [...] ‘The great master of modern fiction, Emillie Zola’. | |
| Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 44: He killed ninety-two cock pheasants out of one hundred shots [...] how is that for high? | |
| Such is Life 268: ‘How is that for high?’ I asked. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Ivy Day at the Committee Room’ Dubliners (1956) 125: What do you think of a Lord Mayor of Dublin sending out for a pound of chops for his dinner? How’s that for high living? | |
| Ulysses 119: Or again, note the meanderings of some purling rill as it babbles on its way, [...] to the tumbling waters of Neptune’s blue domain [...] What about that, Simon? he asked over the fringe of the newspaper. How’s that for high? | |
| (con. 1870s) Manhattan Kaleidoscope 83: ‘How’s that for high?’ was a bid for commendation. |