Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a large amount of money, substantial wealth.

1920		Crane Chron. (MO) 2 Dec. 3/3: During the past five years men have made [...] a great deal of money, ‘tall money’ in the language of the street.
1941		Philadelphia Enquirer (PA) 1 June 85/2: When it comes to plumbing and heating [...] you run into tall money before you knows it.
2001		Richie Rich ‘Use Ta Sell’ 🎵 on Game [album] You slip 10, but don’t let that small money / Be the reason you never see tall money.

an extravagant, boastful story, a lie.

1846		Dollar Newspaper 27 May 4/6: This is a ‘tall story,’ it is true; but we have no special reasons [...] for calling in question its credibility [DA].
1897		M.H.E. Hayne Pioneers of the Klondyke 165: There was a very ‘tall’ story going about last spring. I give it for what it is worth, but will not vouch for its accuracy.
1927		S.V. Benét John Brown’s Body (1928) 72: Lincoln, six feet one in his stocking feet, [...] Whose wit was a coonskin sack of dry, tall tales.
1929		(con. WWI) H. Odum Wings on My Feet 17: I can tell tall tales an’ joree jaw.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 17: Harlem was hectic with [...] tall tales of its kings and queens.
1948		Durant Daily Democrat 4 July 21/1: The writer was accused last week of telling a tall story about the fly fisherman catching catfish with a fly-rod [DA].
1949		National Hist. June 267/1: Looking at the magnificent spectacle, we had to admit that the men who told the tallest tales had been most nearly correct in their descriptions [DA].
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 299: wind-jammer: n. A teller of tall tales, a windy-spinner, a blanket-stretcher.
1960		B. Kops Dream of Peter Mann Act I: Spin him a yarn, a tall story.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 189: I listened to the harsh voice of the Old Man, telling tall tales to Joe and Dennis.
1975		(con. 1930s) H. Anderson Men of the Milford Road 80: That’s a tall one, Jack.
1999		Indep. on Sun. 17 Oct. 23: Many of them are telling some pretty tall tales.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 50: It’s him who’s the mad one, tellin tall stories.

(orig. US) boasting, bragging, the telling of far-fetched stories and anecdotes; thus as v. talk tall, tall talk.

1842		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) XIX 221: One of the striking peculiarities of our people is the disposition to talk tall [DA].
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England II 161: But don’t put a drag-chain on to me, when I am doin’ tall talkin’.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 311: They [...] smack their lips over the ‘tall talk.’ [Ibid.] 329: These poor men [...] found consolation in patriotism – in the old windy verbiage, in the old ‘tall talk.’.
1867		Sportsman 19 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] Why does the tendency to ‘tall talk’ increase in adverse ratio in the social scale?
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Good-Night’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 174: You judes that clobber for the stramm, / You ponces good at talking tall.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 180: These literary cadets [...] sauntered in, with their tall talk and consequential airs.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 70: They had paid their Money for Tall Talk and were prepared to solve any and all Styles of Delivery.
1905		Sporting Times 25 Feb. 1/2: In all of our elections it starts tall talk, lies, and scolding.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Great Expectations’ Sporting Times 1 Oct. 1/3: All his boasts of wealth should prove to be tall talk and ‘swank.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 314: As much as his bloody life is worth to go down and address his tall talk to the assembled multitude in Shanagolden where he daren’t show his nose with the Molly Maguires looking for him to let daylight through him for grabbing the hold of an evicted tenant.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 568: This ‘tall talk,’ despite the horror of the delicate, was a great success in the East, and its salient practitioners – for example, David Crockett – were popular heroes.
1944		W. Blair Tall Tale America 40: You rile a man with your tall talk.
1972		D. Goines Whoreson [context 1950s] 133: Some black-ass nigger had done some tall talking to the police.
1985		Tracks (Aus.) Nov. 21: Blokes turning each other on with tall talk about screwing women in a really derogatory way [Moore 1993].

a braggart, a boaster.

1867		Oregon State Jrnl 25 May 4/1: But the tallest talker and the one that had more cheek than any of us was a certain Jonah Squires [DA].
1884		‘’Arry at a Political Pic-Nic’ in Punch 11 Oct. 180/1: ‘To show his true love for the People!’ sezs one vote-of-thanking tall-talker.

1. (also tallen) a large wine glass.

1681		‘The Courtier’s Health’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1885) V:1 90: Fill Pottles and gallons, and bring the Hogshead in, / We’ll begin with a Tallen — a brimmer to the king.
1694		Motteux (trans.) Rabelais V xliii 195: Cups, Goblets, and Talboys of Gold, Silver, and Cristal.

2. a 3-litre (2-quart) pot filled with wine.

1676		D’Urfey Madam Fickle II i: bella: Where shall we meet at night? maul: At Lambs with the Fidles and a Talboy.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tall-boy, a Pottle or two Quart-pot full of Wine.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

3. (US) a tall glass or can of beer.

1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 25: You can git me a tallboy and a glass of that shine.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 302: Cooling his brow by rolling a cold tallboy of beer across it.
2001		Google Groups:alt.sex.spanking.moderated 21 Aug. 🌐 I stood up and began to sing lustily, fuelled by not only seven tall boys of Labatts Blue, but also two shots of rye whiskey, a rum and coke, three fingers of clear alcohol someone had made in the garage.
2002		N.Y. Rev. of Books 14 Feb. 33/1: At the end of my adventures I was drinking a case of 16-ounce tallboys a night.
2011		Jax Beer Guy 18 Jan. 🌐 Other servlets are ‘tinny’ (375 mL aluminum can), the 750 mL bottle known variously as ‘Long Necks’, ‘Tall boys’ or ‘King Browns’ .
2018		Twitter 9 Jan. 🌐 [G]rab a can, bottle, stubby, longie, squealer, tinny, pounder, picnic, tall boy etc. ;).
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 85: He plucked two tallboys from the rack.

see high cotton n.

see under order n.

see big paper under paper n.

see tall timber n.

one who stands out from the mass; 20C use usu. mainly Aus./N.Z. and refers to a conspicuously high earner or other VIP; thus tall poppy syndrome, the desire of the less successful to bring an outstanding individual back ‘down to earth’.

1837		Wilts. & Gloucs. Standard 30 Dec. 1/7: Come S. Cherrier [and] Toussaint Peltier were yesterday sent to jail on a charge of a high treason [...] It was men of such stamp, [...] the tall poppies, that stood in need of decapaitation.
1848		Bristol Times & Mirror 17 June 3/2: The dumb show of cutrting off the tall poppy heads has its significance for good as well as evil.
1864		Glasgow Herald 12 Sept. 6/1: It is a kind of public proclamation that you are a tall poppy; and that, as in in these days your head cannot be struck off, it is worthwhile to buy you.
1869		Advocate (Melbourne) 3 July 3/1: [T]he Tarquin of British power sought to decapitate the tallest poppies which nourished in the national garden.
1871		Ballarat Star (Vic.) 15 June 3/1: [T]he Chief Secretary had [...] taken all the tall poppies into his camp. If he found anybody likely to take a lead in the House—any one gathering a following about him —he took him in.
1880		Bendigo Advertiser (Vic.) 4 May 2/3: [T]he retrenchment committee appear to have made it their glory to strike at the heads of the tallest poppies. So the town clerk and the receiver of revenue are the first that have to succumb to the lopping process.
1890		Protestant Standard (Sydney) 29 Nov. 8/4: The attack upon the Protestant landlords is a mere matter of outposts. It is the old expedient of cutting down first the tall poppies.
1891		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 23 June 5/5: In the course of his speech there were some oblique references to the tall poppy speech.
1900		Aus. Town & Country Jrnl 10 Feb. 20/3: The wind had been; however, taken out of the sails of the Conference by the action of the Victorian Premier in cutting off the head of his tallest opposition poppy — by the appointment of Mr Deakin.
1931		Sugden & Eggleston G. Swinburne 84: The opponents of the Bill claimed that retrenchment should begin at the top. There should be a bottom limit; the tall poppies might be cut, but the lowest ranks should be exempt.
1936		Belfast News-Letter 23 Dec. 9/5: The talent in Ulster boys and girls was above the average. They had tro fight amongst themselves to get into the position of the tall poppy among the other poppies.
1969		Listener 13 Nov. 660/1: They booed this great man, and he had to take it. It was part of the thing — no tall poppies. You’ve got to do well, but there’s supposed not to be any sense of excellence making any difference to human equality.
1975		Sydney Morning Herald 8 Apr. 6: Labor is obsessed with the ‘tall poppies’, and seems determined to pull them down .
1980		Canberra Times (ACT) 13 Sept. 45/2: Which [i.e. supporting an underdog sports team] is a reversal of the role in recent years and probably reflects something of the tall-poppy syndrome, among other factors.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 51: Tall poppy: Any Australian who reads more than the sporting results and knows how to use snail tongs. Someone who aspires to intellectual excellence and cannot tell the difference between one make of car and another. The species is much hated in Australia and is always being cut down to size.
1989		Sun. Indep. 2 May 22/5: He delighted me with [Aus. novelist] Peter Carey’s description of Irish begrudgery as the tall poppy syndrome.
1998		Irish. Indep. 30 June 24/5: Australians have a term for begrudgers who cut down to size anyone who’s seen as standing too tall: ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’.
2000		Hartford Courant (CT) sect. D 5 Sept. 27/4: G’Day from Down Under [...] Tall poppy — someone successful in a particular field.
2004		Sun. Indep. (Dublin) 2 May 14/2: Tall poppy syndrome. They just want to cut people like you and Denis down.
2001		W. Dodson Sharp End 47: To some extent Woodham has been a victim of the tall poppy syndrome, having his fair share of admirers as well as plenty of detractors among the prison officers he has commanded.
2002		Warnambool Standard (Aus.)12 Nov. 🌐 [headline] District tall poppies receive honors. The life of former Koroit and Warrnambool student Sir John Eccles will be recognised tonight at the first Warrnambool Eccles Tall Poppy awards presentation.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 207: tall poppy Outstanding person who has aroused the envy of lesser achievers. The phrase was popularised in 1931 by New South Wales premier J.T Lang to describe those on government salaries above 10 pounds a week. The tall poppy syndrome is used of a high-flier attacked by those below a conspicuously high earner or other VIP.
2017		Guardian 17 June 16/2: Before she fell victim of tall poppy syndrome [...] Wilson was a star on the rise.

see separate entry.

see tall timber n.

a pint of coffee.

1891		Sporting Times 18 Apr. 3/5: ‘Tall ’un’ Pint o’ coffee.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

bourbon and water.

1994		Jrnl News (White Plains, NY) 17 Aug. E2/1: One of [Booker Noe’s] favourite ways to use [bourbon] is in a drink he calls ‘Tall Water’ [...] ‘It’s like a glass of iced tea [...] only with bourbon’.
2007		B. Noe in Pittsburgh Post-Gaz. 20 Apr. 🌐 Maybe the most authentic way to enjoy [bourbon] is by mixing ‘tall water’ in honor of bourbon luminary Booker Noe: one part Booker's to four parts water. As Booker used to tell everyone, it's just ‘Kentucky tea’.