Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to drink, to be drunk.

1848		Nathan Ames Childe Harvard 71: Or men ‘get high’ by drinking abstract toddies?
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 254: The phrase to get high, i.e. to become intoxicated, is allied with the above expression [i.e. HIGH-GO].
1940		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 6 Jan. 16: The ex-waiter [...] who got ‘high’ at the formal.

2. (drugs) to experience a drug.

1937		M. Sunshine ‘When I Get Low I Get High’ 🎵 My fur coat’s sold, oh Lord ain’t it cold / But I’m not gonna holler ‘cause I’ve still got a dollar / And when I get low, oh I get high!
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 93: Some of the boys [...] used to drop by to sit in and get high.
1951		in Whitman Women’s Home Companion June (in Hamilton Men of the Und. ) 214: But with all that jabbing I didn’t even get high any more.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn (1966) 210: Sal would be over and they could get high. Great!
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 104: The only way you gon get high today is you rob somebody.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 19: You got yo’ li’l ol’ pootbutt [...] Don’ git high – nothin’. He just dedicated to d’ home front, do what he momma tell ’im.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 33: Wanna hang out an’ get high?
2001		Source Aug. 83: He ran the streets getting high and looking for new thrills.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 74: ‘We all straight. Don’t get high. Don’t pop no Oxy. Don’t smoke a blunt’.

(drugs) to experience a drug.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive 196: Get high behind v. (1950s–1960s) to become intoxicated after smoking or using drugs or after drinking liquor; refers to the effects of being ‘behind’ (under the influence of) a specific drug.

(US) tipsy, mildly drunk.

1957		C. Himes Imabelle 91: A half-high miss coming from an after-hours joint looked at them.
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 159: One time I came home half high / and started to grind the old-fashioned way.
1970		in DARE.

(US black) very drunk.

1929		(con. WWI) H. Odum Wings on My Feet 16: I ain’t no red shadow drinkin’ that French cognac like I is when I’m half split, ’bout high as Georgia pine wid sho’-’nuf co’n likker.
1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 5 Mar. 11/1: Nancy Coles [...] was on the loose at the Indigo the other sun-time as — hi as a Georgia pine’.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: higher than a Georgia pine . . . flustered.
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 484: high : Intoxicated, also charged on marijuana. I’m high as a Georgia pine!
1971		Ed Bullins ‘Dandy’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 87: Dis y’ere lil beer’s got dis gal high as a Georgia pine.
1978		E.S. Katz Folklore 27: Proverbial folksay: [...] as high as a Georgia pine.
1984		R. Wilder You All Spoken Here 165: High as a Georgia pine: Intoxicated.

1. in fig. use, emotionally stimulated, e.g. very happy or shocked; thus kite-high adj.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 4/8: Sometimes nothing flurries you, and at other times the slightest sound knocks you kite-high.
1905		‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 11: high as a kite, adv. phr. Equivalent to sky high.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 180: They were also high as kites. They greeted me with a howl of glee.
1968		J. Kramer Instant Replay 163: Everybody was high as a kite, jumping around and kicking up their heels.
1989		A. Higgins ‘The Bird I Fancied’ in Helsingør Station and Other Departures 134: When not down in the dumps, you were frequently high as a kite.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 249: I walk out high as a kite.

2. a general intensifier.

1893		Columbian (Bloomsbury, PA) 25 Aug. 4/5: I heerd that the banks wuz all goin’ to bust up higher’n a kite.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 176: Then we organized, and they busted our union higher’n a kite.
1954		(con. c.1915) in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 629: I believe I’m knocked up higher than a kite.

3. very drunk [+ addition of rhy. sl. high as a kite = tight adj. (5)].

1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 1011: ‘Good to see you still riding high, wide, and handsome.’ ‘Higher than a kite,’ shouted Charley.
1946–8		T-Bone Walker ‘She’s The No-Sleepin’est Woman’ 🎵 When I tiptoe to the house, high as a kite / I’d rather face a tiger than to face my wife.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 85: It would have been a serious breach of etiquette to stick to brown ale [...] and presently Percy was higher than a kite.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 143: Of course he f---g gave it to me! He was high as a kite at the time, and now I suppose he’s saying I took it from him in his drunken stupor.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 134: I was drunk, high as a kite.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 80: I was high as a kite.

4. intoxicated by a drug.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Flying higher than a kite, full of dope.
1959		A. Anderson ‘Dance of the Infidels’ in Lover Man 155: We [...] smoked a couple more sticks and got as high as kites.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 149: She was high as a kite on the junk.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 41: I go out and finds the motherfucker high as a kite.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 185: Dem pills hits you h-i-g-h as a kite.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 7: Ah’ve goat one Sick Boy [...] he laughed, high as a fuckin kite.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Reality 30 Apr. 16: We were both high as kites on heroin.
2010		K. Richards Life 7: I was flying high as a kite on pure, pure Merck cocaine, the fluffy pharmaceutical blow.

(US) drunk [the use of ninety may be ext. of trad. image of nine as a lucky number].

1858

S.A. Hammett Piney Woods Tavern 155: He kept on goin’, tell he got as high as ninety [DARE].

1. enthusiastic about.

1938		D. Runyon ‘It Comes Up Mud’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 532: Little Alfie is very high on Last Hope and will not stand for anybody insulting this particular horse.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 20: The Bat’s pretty high on the boy, and he’s no clunk when it comes to fighters.
1959		H. Ellison ‘May We Also Speak’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 34: I knew they were all pretty high on the kid.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) x: I am ‘My Majesty Piri Thomas,’ with a high on anything and like a stoned king, I gotta survey my kingdom.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 103: It was your idea. You got me high on it.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 113: I was noticing girls more than ever [...] Getting high on ’em.

2. in ample possession of.

1942

R. Chandler High Window 214: It depends on what you mean by well. She’ll always be high on nerves and low on animal emotion.

(US Und.) a judge.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 41: high beak. The first judge; the president; the governor; the head official.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890) 17: High bloke. A judge.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Beak, a judge [...] High Bloke, the Governor or Chief Justice.
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: Those who give evidence against him ‘mount the pieter,’ [sic] he is tried by ‘the bloke with the jasey,’ or the high bloke, condemned by the twelve apostles, or the twelve godfathers.

(UK Und.) a dashing swindler.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(US) a rich (young) man-about-town.

1890

Illus. Police News 5 Apr. 1: [pic. caption] HIGH JINKS AMONG YOUNG HIGH DADDIES OF THE HUB / A Private Party Charter a Suburban Hotel Near Boston / FASHIONABLE HIGH TONES AND THEIR GIRL COMPANIONS GO IT GAYLY.

(US und.) the chief of detectives.

1909

‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A chief of detectives is a high front and a main bull.

(UK Und.) adopting an aristocratic persona for the purposes of swindling.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(UK Und.) a well-dressed highwayman.

1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

a frolic, a spree.

1822		C. Dibdin Yngr Larks of Logic, Tom and Jerry frontispiece: Three Acts of Wit and Whim, replete with High Goes, Prime Chaunts, and Out-and-out Sprees.
1826		‘Nocturnal Sports’ in Universal Songster II 180/1: Comes the ’igh go, the flash swell [...] queers the tavern coves!
1840		R.H. Dana Two Years before the Mast (1992) 138: The benches and tables thrown up in a corner [...] gave evident signs of last night’s high go.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 253: high-go. A merry frolic, usually with drinking.

(US drugs) top quality marijuana.

2003		Urban Dict. 7 Nov. 🌐 High grade fi eva ah nuh bush(regs) weed neva.
2011		J. Shepherd ‘Love Mi Chalice Cup’ 🎵 Mi burn herb every day / Di high grade it set me free.
2017		Ray Blk ‘Chill Out’ 🎵 On a late night, on a Friday, with some high-grade.

(US) the use of a stacked heel to distort one's posture and suggest lameness in the pursuit of begging ; see cit. 1907.

1907

N.Y. Times 27 Jan. Sun. Mag. 4: The girl, or ‘cow,’ was playing the ‘high heel game’ with a show of lameness. One of her shoes was built up, inside and out, like those used by sufferers from hip disease. This threw the girl’s hip out of place. [...] Struggling down a crowded street [...] with the aid of a crutch the money of the charitable came to her in a steady stream.

(N.Z. prison) a prison’s Site Manager (formerly, the Superintendent).

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 87/1: high knob n. the prison Site Manager (formerly, the Superintendent).

(UK Und.) leading criminals.

1896

A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 95: He had spent most of the day at the Bag of Nails, dancing attendance on the High Mobsmen. [...] Those of the High Mob were the flourishing practitioners in burglary, the mag, the mace, and the broads, with an outer fringe of such dippers — such pickpockets — as could dress well, welshers and snidesmen.

1. the highway.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 84: the hygh pad the hygh waye.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Belman of London (3rd) B4: Nay, bing we a wast to the hyepad, the ruffmans is by.

2. (also high-padsman) a highwayman; also as n., high-padding, highway robbery.

1661		Hue and Cry after Mercurius Democritus 8: The number of vicious Artists are unknown to the Mrs [i.e. Masters] and the Wardens of their own fencing Mobs [...] the life of which Company are High-way Pads, Glasiers, Shop-lifts, Fob-sylers [sic], instead of Bung -Tipers [sic] Bulkers,a nd some for the Mill, Budg and Snug.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 183: I thought good to buy a brace of good Geldings [...] they might very well serve for the High Pad.
1674		Jackson’s Recantation in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 43: Your high-pads do always keep their station upon your greatest and most beaten roads.
1680		Head Eng. Rogue IV 152: Which Arts are divided into that of High-Padding, Low-Padding, Cloy-Filing, Bung-Nipping, Prancers Prigging, Duds-Lifting, Rhum-Napping, Cove-Cuffing, Mort-Trapping, Stamp-Flashing, Ken-Milling, Jerk the Naskin.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: High pad c. a Highway Robber well Mounted and Armed.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: high-pads High-way-men, or Bully-Ruffins, the Thirteenth Order of Villains, and the boldest of all others. Before they commence, they furnish themselves with good Horses, Swords, Pistols, &c. and, sometimes singly, but mostly in Company, commit their execrable Robberies.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 29: The High-Pad, or Highway-Man. The Low-Pad, or Foot-robber.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1834		W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1864) 180: High-pads and low-pads [F&H].
1842		Egan ‘The Bould Yeoman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 136: A chant I’ll tip to you about a High-pad pal so down, / With his pops, and high-bred prad which brought to him renown. [Ibid.] ‘The Bridle Cull’ 140: Tis by these little lays a High-padsman he thrives.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 110: High pads, thieves, or footpads, who rob on the highway, of the same class as scamps and spicers.
1856		‘A Harassing Painsworth’ in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 28: Listen! all you high pads and low pads, rum gills and queer gills, patricos, palliards, priggers, whipjacks, and jackmen, from the arch rogue to the needy mizzler.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Pads, robbers.

3. (mid-17C) a horse thief.

1659

Mercurius Democritus 10-26 Aug. 98: A company of high Pads, that is in English Horse-thieves, having an intention to rob a Lestershire Farmer [etc.].

(UK Und.) a highwayman.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: spicer high a highwayman.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: Gentleman prisoners, members of the High Spice Ward, silence, and answer to your names.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 79: Spicerhigh, a highwayman.

(UK Und., an elite highwayman; US Und.) a superior thief.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: high tober the highest order of thieves, a person who robs on the highway well dressed on horse-back, always appears in good company.
1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 60: Your flash-man, is following his occupation, scampering on his prancer upon the high tober .
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant [as cit. a.1790].
1833		‘A Chaunt by Slapped-up Kate & Dubber Daff’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 47: But of all the coves I’ve had bye-blows or muck, / Flashy Jem, the high-tober, for me.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 111: High tobers, the highest order of thieves, who rob on the highway, well dressed and mounted on fine horses.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 41: high tobers Gonnoffs; the highest order of thieves, who generally go well dressed, and frequent watering-places, etc., etc.

(US) haughty.

c.1930		N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 318: He had this high-assed dignity that Latins have about honour.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 229: I don’t give a damn whether you’re a princess or not . . . I don’t want any of your high-assed Russian variety.
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 347: Terry referred to Julia as ‘that high-assed society cunt’.
1998		(con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 150: Most of all, this country should be run by Moslems and not some pro-Yankee, high ass, fat lipped knock kneed, one-eyed, high living Christian bigot.

see separate entries.

1. (drugs) the wide eyes of a person on crack cocaine.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 12: Highbeams — The wide eyes of a person on crack.

2. (US campus) prominent nipples.

1983		P. Dexter God’s Pocket 126: She was slim, and tan for early May. And she had high-beam tits.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.

see separate entries.

a broken-down horse.

1833		T. Hood ‘Sketches from Road’ Comic Annual 53: ‘Ah, Sir!’ said Mat, sighing like a high-blower, ‘if you knew me then.’.
1856		‘The Druid’ Post and Paddock 222: Whether it be politic to breed from a roarer – or [...] ‘a high blower’ – is still a fierce moot-point.

1. a High Churchman, and thus usu. a supporter of Jacobitism.

1715		S. Centlivre Gotham Election I i: He be not a plaguey High Boy, I’m mistaken.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 185: Since all that was aim’d at, / Was to shew a Mob as great, / As High-boys did of late.

2. see highball n.¹

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(US black) to show off.

1994

UGK ‘Feds in Town’ 🎵 No high-cappin in the clubs, I got to play them on a down-low.

(US prison) hepatitis C.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 High Class: Hepatitis C. As in ‘She’s high class!’.

see separate entries.

see high brown n.

see separate entry.

(US) slick, deceptive, excellent, pleasing.

1898		F.H. Smith Caleb West 21: Now don’t try any of your high-daddy tricks on me [DA].
1904		N.-Y. Trib. 22 Oct. 1: The Democratic press is trying to get up a regular high-daddy time over it [DA].

fixed dice that will always show high numbers.

1822

(con. early 17C) Sir W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 283: Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams, and bristles, topping, knapping, slurring, stabbing, and a hundred ways of rooking besides.

1. (US) to pickpocket.

1930		implied in high diver
1979		(con. late 19C) J.T. Edson Gentle Giant 58: Just wait until the boys [...] hear that Ossie Nolly was ‘high dived’ on the street of a hick town.

2. see take a dive under dive n.¹

1. (US) a pickpocket.

1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 90: A panhandling hobo should never be found in a rushing crowd, because the police may pick him up for a ‘high diver’ or pickpocket.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. one who performs cunnilingus.

1939		D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes and Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 116/2: muff-diver or high-diver. A customer (or pimp) who derives his pleasure from cunnilingus.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 21: high-diver (n.): A cunnilinctor.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1982		Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 147: From them she might pick up and more to startle than identify with her sisters use words and expressions such as [...] go down on (fellate or be a high diver or muff-diver).

(US gay) formal clothing of the opposite sex.

1964

Lavender Lex. n.p.: high drag:– Wearing formal or semi-formal clothing of the opposite sex. High drag is favored by most drag queens, whereas it is not at all favored by transvestites. Sometimes also spoken of as suit and tie in jest.

nonsense, unintelligible gibberish.

1609		Dekker Gul’s Horne-Booke 36: As you approach neere any night-walker that is up as late as yourselfe, curse and sweare (like one that speaks hie dutch) in a lofty voice.
1721		‘Anodyne Tanner’ Elizabeth Wisebourn (1885) 6: [S]ome Sage and Understanding Man, who could talk French and High Dutch, who was a favourite of the Ladies and qualify’d for such an Imploy [i.e. as a male prostitute].
1746		W. Dunkin Parson’s Revels (2010) 94: His Voice was brazen, deep and such, / And well accorded with high Dutch.
1781		‘Poor Jack’ in Bullfinch 200: And, my timbers! what lingo he’d coil and belay, / Why ’twas just all as one as high Dutch.
1790		M.P. Andrews Better Late than Never 38: You must talk to him in High Dutch. [...] any jargon will suffice.
1803		Sporting Mag. Apr. XXII 54/1: ‘An please your honour [...] for prigging a Jacob from a dunger-dan-ding-drag.’ [...] Jacob, a ladder, is from the dream of that patriarch, and the rest is High Dutch.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Sept. 3/1: ‘Estreat her recognisances,’ rejoined his Worship. This was high Dutch to the complainant, who lef the box completely obfuscated.

(US) expensive or first-class.

1977		New Yorker 6 June 96/3: It stands to reason that ‘high end’ means expensive,...but why does ‘promotional’, as well as ‘low end’ mean cheap? [OED].
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 207: In the booth behind them, two high-end hookers sat drinking Cokes.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 255: Pete bought four limos — high-end wheels — Lincoln Continentals.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 28: A high-end Kawasaki crotch rocket.
2010		C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 46: For being such a high-end nuthouse, Rainbow Bend had a serious problem with staff turnover.

see separate entries.

(US gay) a very feminine lesbian.

1998

R. Scott Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 high femme — a very, very feminine person.

(US tramp) a detachable white shirt collar.

1915

Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/2: High fence — A white collar.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see high gun under gun n.⁵

(US) an important person.

1896		Ade Artie 100: There was a long spiel by the high guy in the pulpit.
1905		Sporting Times 4 Feb. 1/3: There is no high guy of the soap works to be faced for sixty golden hours, no martinet of the match factory to be addressed on sulphurous subjects in low, respectful tones for close upon three days.
1916		J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 242: He hangs a haymaker on the high guy’s ear.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 29: Anything you say, Highguy.

see jive v.¹ (6)

(US black) a high stuff collar.

1944

D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 53: Then you knock yourself a white one with the high hard yard.

see separate entries.

(US) arrogant, haughty, self-important.

a.1908		‘The Bucking Bronco’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) xix: The first time I saw him ’twas early in spring, / He was riding a bronco, a high-headed thing.
1909		R.A. Wason Happy Hawkins 10: You always was the most obstinate, high-headed, bull-intellected thin-skin ’at ever drew down top wages fer punchin’ cows.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 252: high-headed: adj. Proud, arrogant, spirited.

see separate entries.

(US tramp) the railroad, esp. as regards the main rather than branch lines.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 98: High Iron. – [...] Any main line or track of a railroad as contrasted with the branches.
1968		in DARE.
1990		(con. 1930s) Maury Graham Tales of the Iron Road 3: Memories of the adventures I’d experienced through years of traveling the ‘high iron’ washed over me.

(US Und.) a criminal or tramp who robs other criminals or tramps.

1933

Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.

a gambler who drinks with his victim in order to render the latter more malleable.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: high jinks a gambler at dice, who having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: high-jinks a gambler; under this head, are classed, those fellows who keep little-goes, take in insurances; also attendants at the races, and at the E.O. tables: fellows always on the look-out to rob unwary countrymen at cards, &c.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 41: high jinks Small gamblers.

see under jive v.¹

see separate entry.

1. (US) a dissolute, problematic person [image of a troublesome horse that kicks out].

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues 312/1: High-kicker, subs. (colloquial). Specifically, a dancer whose speciality is the high kick or the porte d’arme; whence, by metaphor, any desperate spreester male or female.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 Mar. 2/2: She was a highkicker and made it interesting and sultry for all with whom she came in contact. My! she was a terror to the management.
1897		Kansas University Quarterly (Ser. B) VI 88: High kicker: fast person. – General [usage in US].
1923		DN V 238: High kicker [...] An expression of derogation.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1959		G. Hamilton Summer Glare 249: ‘She’s a bit of a high-kicker though,’ one said. ‘But what a nifty little kicker! [...] And she’s a bloody good sport. She’ll come across if a bloke can get her on his own.’.

2. (Aus.) a chorus girl [the focal point of her performance].

1901

Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Sept. 32/1: High-kickers are not in the least concerned / By the leers of the Bald-heads ‘blue,’ / But little they dream of their charms up-turned / To the gallery’s bird’s-eye view.

see separate entries.

esp. of a thief, living in a garret or cockloft, i.e. a very small room immediately above the garret; thus high-liver, one who occupies a garret.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: High Living. To lodge in a garret, or cockloft.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 41: high-liver A fellow who lives in a garret.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Liver, one who lives in a garret.

(US black) a variety of hairstyle, similar to the fade n. (4)

1990

N. George ‘CPT Time’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 59: A handsome six-footer with a greasy Cali-styled high-low.

laced boots that reach the ankles.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 96: High-lows — shoes which reach to the ancles: they have a thievish aspect, always worn at Haggerstone, but are esteemed at Tothil-down also.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 11 Sept. 261/1: [H]e advanced in all the pride of a new pair of flannel drawers, high-low-shoes, and cotton trotter cases.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 6 Jan. 75: Tom sported a blue coat with basket buttons, blue striped trousers, a buff waistcoat, a red Spitalfields bandanna round his neck [...] a pair of neatly-blacked highlows, broad-ribbed cotton stockings.
1844		A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury III 266: A pair of hob-nailed high-lows for my cad-boy.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Oct. Sept. 3/2: The degrading occupation of constructing crabs, Bluchers, high-lows, and stock boots.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 265: In the silent night Robinson’s highlows might have been heard half a mile off, clattering along the hard road.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 21: I chucks on my new velveteen startler [...] a hairy cap, and them high-lows as I had made.
1870		D. Kirwan Palace & Hovel 69: My highlows were the cheese, with breeches to the knees.
1873		Sl. Dict.

(US) emotionally (or otherwise) demanding; thus low maintenance, easy-going.

1989		N. Ephron When Harry Met Sally [film] Harry Burns: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance. Sally Albright: Which one am I? Harry Burns: You’re the worst kind. You’re high maintenance but you think you’re low maintenance.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 high-maintenance adj 1. requires a lot of work. Generally referring to a relationship in which the other person is needy or greedy. (‘He considered beautiful girls too high-maintenance.’).
2003		K. Cage Gayle 80/2: low maintenance adj. easy-going, undemanding person.
2005		D. Vandenberg Iron Circle 101: ‘You marry one of those, those [...]’ ‘High-maintenance women, Ma.’ ‘[...] in the end you’ll have nothing but heartache.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 235: I lied about not being high-maintenance.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Nya Braswell? That chick high maintenance, stic.
2014		Ruderman & Laker Busted 175: We [ii.e. a tabloid] were like a cheap date; we were low-maintenance—content to grab a Bud Light at a dive bar.

crooked dice that will always produce a high number.

1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 27: Ye must also be furnished with high men and low men for a mumchance and for passage.
1592		Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 6: I had cheates for the very sise, of the squariers, langrets, gourds, stoppe-dice, high-men, low-men, and dice barde for all aduantages.
1605		Shakespeare London Prodigal A4: Item, to my sonne Mat Flowerdale I bequeath two bale of false dyce, videllicet, high men, and loe men, fullomes, stop cater-traies, and other bones of function.
a.1618		J. Harington Epigrams I No. 79: Then play thou for a pound, or for a pin, / High men or low men, still are foysted in.
1630		J. Taylor ‘Travels of Twelve-pence’ in Works (1869) I 73: Where Fullam high and Low-men bore great sway, / With the quick helpe of a Bard Cater Trey.
c.1635		W. Cartwright Ordinary II iii: Your high / And low men are but trifles: your pois’d dye / That’s ballasted with quicksilver or gold / Is gross to this.
1732		Progress of a Rake 43: By this time Dick begins to know / His fate, by Fulham’s High and Low / And that the Cogging of a Dy / Has made his Heaps of Guineas fly.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: The names of false dice: A bale of bard cinque deuces A bale of flat cinque deuces A bale of flat sice aces A bale of bard cater traes A bale of flat cater traes A bale of fulhams A bale of light graniers A bale of langrets contrary to the ventage A bale of gordes, with as many highmen as lowmen, for passage A bale of demies A bale of long dice for even and odd A bale of bristles A bale of direct contraries.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/1: [as cit. 1785].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

see separate entry.

(W.I.) a high-caste East Indian.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(Irish) an old-fashioned ladies’ bicycle.

1997

Share Slanguage.

see under nob n.²

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see under one n.¹

an exorbitantly high price.

1861

Punch 27 Apr. 169: About $50. Now this is what the inferior members of the equestrian order call a high pike, and the vulgar in general denominate a heavy fork-out.

1. (US black) sophisticated, classy.

1987		Ice T ‘Somebody Gotta Do It’ 🎵 Known around the world for my high post groomin’.
1999		Originoo Gunn Clappaz ‘You’re Not Sure To See Tomorrow’ 🎵 I love french toast and bitches that’s high-post.
2012		Erick Sermon ‘Headgames’ 🎵 Actin high post for your lil’ stank friends.

2. (US black) in neg. use of sense 1, pretentious.

1985

Boogie Boys ‘Fly Girl’ 🎵 The gold fingernails are high post.

3. (US black) arrogant, supercilious.

1994		Jeru the Damager ‘Da Bichez’ 🎵 High-post attitudes, real rude with fat asses.
1997		Teflon ‘Shit Happens’ 🎵 When I needed you most, you played high-post and kept breezin.
2003		Juggaknots ‘Sex Type Thang’ 🎵 The pussy tried to play high-post.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Word to mother, I don’t trust that high-post bitch.

1. (US Und.) to act in an ostentatious manner.

1969

B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 84: See, it costs us [i.e. thieves] three times, four or five times, as much to do anything as it does anybody else because we got to high-play. [...] You’re going to impress somebody else, and you use that money.

2. (US) to show (someone) off.

1972

D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 61: In those days [...] he high-played her all around town [...] he just likes to turn up at all of his joints with a winner on his arm.

(orig. US) a tall man; thus a nickname.

1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 578: high-pocket(s), n. A long-legged, lank man. ‘See what a high-pockets he is, anyhow.’.
1929		T. Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel (1930) 343: Tall, boyish [...] coming along the trench with that buoyant stride which had won for him the affectionate soubriquet of ‘Highpockets’ from officers and men alike.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: High pocket, a tall man or woman.
1938		(con. c.1920) S.H. Holbrook Holy Old Mackinaw 227: High-Pockets made away with a bit batch of boom chains.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 135: Get busy and spin that wheel, highpockets.
1940		C. Rawson Headless Lady (1987) 43: The man with the high pockets is the Great Merlini in person.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 128: Think Highpockets is just a little rough for the first forced march.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 156: He was a high-pockets with reddish eyebrows.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 37: Aw, go piss up a rope, Highpockets.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

(US black) to show off.

1990		Master Ace ‘I Got Ta’ 🎵 I got ta avoid flaunting, showing off, and high posting, if I can.
2001		Angie Martinez ‘Ladies & Gents’ 🎵 Fake ballers in the spot high postin’.

1. (US prison) the maximum security section; also attrib.

1953		R. Carlton ‘Hophead Homicide’ in Mobsters Feb. 🌐 Betty was upstairs in the high-power tank.
1954		(con. 1943) C. Chessman Cell 2455 258: I was transferred to the Los Angeles County Jail and confined to the ‘High Power’ tank.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 223: The Peg locked me up in high-power with the psychos, the killers and the double-Y chromosome monsters.
1987		Ice-T ‘Six in the Morning’ 🎵 Threw us in the county high power block / No freaks to see no beats to rock.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 279: L’il Fee was taken to High Power, maximum security.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 High Power: High security unit (L.A. County Jail).

2. a trusty n.²

1977

B. Jackson Killing Time 174: Frank got turned out on a highpower over the plow squad. I had got turned out do-pop [a half trusty] and was working at the horse barn. [Ibid.] 183: You can’t do nothing ’cause the highpower got a rifle right down on you [the inmate guard points his rifle at the man being beaten] ready to kill you just in case you strike back at the rider.

see separate entries.

see under prime v.

(S.Afr. gay) an active homosexual man, as opposed to a passive one, a top man under top adj.

2003

K. Cage Gayle 74/2: high queen n. an active gay man (cf. top man, wolf) [Johannesburg, 1930s].

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(US black) a beautiful, brown-skinned woman.

1963		in Mississippi John Hurt ‘Lisa Jane’ in Major (1994).
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive 232: High season(ed) brown n. (1900s–1930s) a beautiful brown-skinned woman.

see separate entries.

see high-shoe n.

(orig. US) a superior person or one who claims to be superior; also attrib.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 9: High shot – Rich fellow.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Blood Pressure’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 77: Around the table [...] are all the high shots in town.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 100: Many of these guys are very high shots during the gold rush.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 311: Big fucking hoodlums. High-shot stickup-men.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(W.I.) very good, superior.

1942

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

see separate entries.

see separate entry.

(drugs) alkyl nitrites.

2002

DRUG-ARM Aus. 🌐 Slang Terms: high tec Alkyl nitrite.

see high roller n. (1)

1. a state of financial security.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: High Tide, when the Pocket is full of Money.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: high-tide having plenty of money.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 96: High tide — plenty of the possibles.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 112/1: High Tide having plenty of money.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: A cove is at ‘high tide’ or ‘inlaid’ or has a ‘mint’ when he has plenty of money.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Tide, plenty of money.

2. a state of drunkenness.

1914

‘Hugh McHugh’ You Should Worry cap. 1: His capacity for storing away free liquids was awe-inspiring and a sin. [...] Nobody ever saw Ikey at high tide.

see separate entry.

see separate entries.

a style of haircut favoured by young blacks.

1988		Salt N Pepa ‘Shake Your Thang’ 🎵 A Salt With a Deadly Pepa [album] It’s Friday night, and I just got paid / I’m checking out the fella with the high-top fade.
1992–2003		P. Atoon Rap Dict. 🌐 high top fade (n) Haircut high on the top, fading down to close cut on the sides ‘Livin’ in fear of my shade or my high top fade’ -- Public Enemy.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.

(US) a tall hat; thus in fig. use, a member of the social elite, i.e. someone who might wear one.

1845		Satirist & Punch (Boston, MA) 1 Feb. 59/3: We are not much of a high-top sweetener and do not expect a solicitation card.
1894		Breckenridge News (Cleveport, KY) 19 Sept. 3/6: His long-tail coat studded with big brass buttons and ‘high-top sweetener’ lowering from his kindly cranium.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see higher than Gilderoy’s kite adj.

see separate entries.

see higher than a cat’s back adj.

an imitation dandy.

1909

(ref. to 1882) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

of wagering, high-stakes.

1818		W. Perry London Guide 60: E.O., Vingt-une, Hazard, are the high-cut games of those who attack the vitals of an hereditary estate.
1832		(ref. to early 17C) Satirist (London) 24 June 207/2: Dispatches were in use as early as the reign of James the First, and were known under the name of high-cut dice.

see separate entries.

(US) up-market, expensive.

1986

J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 14: [A] large crowd of semisuccessful TV actors, directors, coke dealers and lower-echelon movie executives, many of whom were interested in high-line cars [...] at tremendous discounts.

living a comfortable, secure and well-off life; esp. in phrs. eat/live high on/off the hog (cf. live high ).

1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 214: He threw his shovel away ’n started eatin’ a little higher up on the hog.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 80: ‘I been eating pretty high on the hog for a long time.’ Anna made a face. ‘Such talk! Didn’t you ever go to school?’ ‘What’s the matter with my talk? That’s just an expression. Means living good.’.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 266: I snuck around and seen how the rear-echelon pogues was livin’. High off’n the hog.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 5 Feb. in Proud Highway (1997) 491: He is, you know, living high on the hawg.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 89: We’ve been living high off the hog for a long, long time.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 152: ‘Prudence [...] ate higher on the hog, is all’.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 91: I was livin’ high off the hog.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 31: ‘Livin’ high on whitey’s hog,’ was the way Richie put it.
1986		T. Philbin Under Cover 110: People keep dying. They go on, living high on the hog.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 87: Minogue was living high on the hog, with no shortage of money, power or luxury.
2000		B. Bilger Noodling for Flatheads (2001) 196: As blacks joined the middle class, they wanted to live high on the hog as well.
2012		E. Kurtz ‘In the Neighborhood’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] Van Duong lived high on the hog.

(US campus) generic for any male high school student; .

1933		Ft Lauderdale News (FL) 6 Oct. 2/6: A high-school junior [...] dates a high School Harry every night.
1946		Miami News (FL) 27 July 5/1: A high school Harry with jitteritis.
1959		L.P. Boone ‘Gator Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 155: High-school Harrys are perpetual show-offs.
1966		Current Sl. I:3 4/1: Harry high school n. A high school student who does not intend to attend college.
1974		Indianapolis News 30 Mar. 16/5: ‘At the end of that day we’re still what they call a High School Harry’.
1987		H.L. Horowitz Campus Life 181: The high school Harrys [...] who dominated athletics.
2002		in Karzen & Addy Detroit Pistons 127: That’s High School Harry stuff.

(US) important.

2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 86: ‘This is a high-ticket endeavor from jump street’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 132: He prosecuted high-ticket homicides.

to live a comfortable, secure and well-off life (cf. high on the hog ).

1738		Swift Polite Conversation 82: Mr. Neverout, I hear you live high.
1908		‘Rube’ Marquard N.Y. World 2 Aug. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 149: I have always been an exponent of the simple life. Only once did I try ‘living high.’.
1916		J.N. Hall Kitchener’s Mob 81: Wooden bunks to sleep in, batmen to bring ’em ’ot water fer shavin’ [...] Blimy, I wonder wot they calls livin’ ’igh?
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 44: The stuff I stole there kept me in funds and living high.
1947		L.J. Valentine Night Stick 41: What a scabby lot these violators were. They had killed freely, lived high, had had pockets full of loose cash; but when they reached the end of the line they were penniless.
1954		J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 94: Living high, but he doesn’t spend a nickel.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 1 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 365: I am living high in a fine town.
1973		R. Daley Target Blue 181: ‘That kid never lived so high in his life. We made a gentleman out of that guy’ .

(US) strongly, very much; usu. as stink to high heaven under stink v.

1948		R. Raven-Hart Canoe in Aus. 76: Melbourne and Adelaide get what they call ‘dust-storms’, and ‘go to market about it’, grousing to high heaven.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 23: That whole place stank to high heaven. He stank to high heaven.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 101: She’d thought the band sucked to high heaven that night, even allowing for the sound.