Green’s Dictionary of Slang

high adj.1

1. intoxicated with drink or poss. religious/spiritual enthusiasm.

T. May (trans.) Lucan’s Pharsalia Bk X n.p.: But stay not thou, He’s high with wine, and fit for Venus now.
[Ire]Head Nugae Venales 258: I was in Holbourn, where I saw two high hot Huffing Hectors (about three-quarters Drunk).
[UK]R. Cumberland Jew IV i: You are very high, Sir; I am afraid your unexpected good fortune has rather intoxicated you.
[US]J.B. Skillman N.Y. Police Reports 23: M[agistrate]. How came you on Mr. — premises last night? P[risoner]. I was high, sir. M. Yes, so high that you were caught upon the top of his house.
[US]D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune 112: If I get high, / Some watchman spy, / Says, shut up – why make so d----d clatter?
[UK]Paul Pry 5 Mar. 1/2: [T]hat genus of considerate landlords who refuse to serve their customers when they perceive that such customers are ‘high in the cups’.
[US]F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 10: Miss Jenkins said [...] she’d seen Deacon Bedott high, time and agin!
[US]Burlington Sentinel in Hall (1856) 461: We give a list of a few of the various words and phrases which have been in use, at one time or another, to signify some stage of inebriation: [...] high.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 43/1: This [robbery] was too much for him, and being pretty ‘high,’ he called the company a d—d set, of thieves and threatened the ‘cops’.
[US]M.D. Landon Eli Perkins 127: A rumseller, whom I will call Hi Church, because he was ‘high’ most of the time.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 May 3/2: The girls dabbed themselves ‘The High Five’—not, forsooth, because they ever got high, but because there were five of them .
[US]Charles E. Trevathan ‘Bully of the Town’ 🎵 I asked Miss Pansy Blossom if she would wing a reel, / She says, ‘Law, Mr. Johnsing, how high you make me feel.’.
[UK]B. Pain De Omnibus 122: It’s amoosements like them as sends men art on the hitiddly, instead o’ tikin’ their money ’ome.
[US]Rudolph Fisher Walls of Jericho 306: Not ‘drunk’ in the usual sense, for which the Harlemese is high.
[US]Cab Calloway ‘Good Sauce from the Gravy Bowl’ 🎵 One drink, two drinks, three drinks, four drinks, five drinks, six drinks, / Drink it, drink it, / You’re bound to get high.
[UK]P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 7: She’s an old peach [...] She starts drinkin’ double Martinis about six an’ by midnight she’s good an’ high.
[US]‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 26 Apr. 9/7: [of marijuana] I takes one drag on that reefer ‘fag’ and jack, I’m high just like that sky.
[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 77: ‘So you kids got high?’ ‘No [...] we didn’t get drunk.’.
[US]Mad mag. June–July 3: Try Adlers cocktails. At last you can get higher than she can.
[UK]C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 73: A woman, if she’s high and a bit frustrated [...] is very apt, I’ve found, to want to show she ‘understands’.
[UK]F. Norman Guntz 70: We had had plenty of booze [...] and were more than a little high.
[US]E. Torres After Hours 170: Dave, I think you’re a little high.
[Ire]P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 70: I felt so high I could have reached up and popped a planet or two in my pocket.
[UK]Z. Smith White Teeth 17: Are you high on something?

2. (US) unfettered by social rules.

[US]Pioneer Exp. (Pembina, ND) 13 Apr. 4/4: Advice to girls [...] To make oneself conspicuous by open contempott of [...] social laws is the first degree of the descending scale. To be ‘fast,’ ‘loud,’ ‘high,’ ‘fly’ (how many synonyms out national slang dictionary offers for the next slide) is [...] dangerously allied to culpable indiscretion.

3. intoxicated with drugs.

[US]St Louis Star-Times 4 Feb. n.p.: The worst thing about that loco weed is the way these kids go for them. Most of them, boys and girls, are just punks and when they get high on the stuff you can write your own ticket.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 51: He’d light up and get real high.
[UK]Fads & Fancies 1 3: For those who don’t know, marijuana (or tea or weed or gauge — there is a whole new language here) is a drug [...] smoked in cigarettes known as reefers or mezzes or muggles. If you are in the habit of smoking [...] you are a ‘viper’ and when you are experiencing the full effects of the drug you are ‘high’.
[US]‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 157: High . . . Feeling good, in a state of euphoria. You can be ‘high’ on benny, weed, lush, nutmeg, ammonia (The Scrubwoman’s Kick). You can be high without any chemical boot, just feeling good.
[UK]‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 15: I had been told about the sensations of getting ‘high’ - coming under the influence of the drug.
[UK]T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 46: ‘You wouldn’t have [told me] if you hadn’t been so high. You looked absolutely stupid’.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 23: She stayed uptown [...] high most of the time on benzedrine and marijuana.
[US]D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 54: The longer his bowels stayed locked, the more dope it would take to make him high.
[US]C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 246: It’s the medication . . . The first few days we keep you pretty high.
[UK]V. Headley Yardie 28: Getting high and boasting.
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 228: He calls himself Don Heroin; not that he takes the drug. ‘The only thing that’s high about me is the music.’.
[US](con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 61: ‘It’s fun, You get high’.
[US]C. Stella Rough Riders 56: You never knew him to get high? Not even a joint?
[US]S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘Front desk dude’s mostly high, so he don’t know if I’ve paid or not’.
[US]Rayman & Blau Riker’s 175: There was this big influx of drugs into the facility [...] Everybody was high. They had K2. Crack. Marijuana.

4. very enthusiastic about or taken with something; often as high on

[[UK]T. Heywood A Woman Killed with Kindness in Sturgess Three Elizabethan Domestic Tragedies (1969) 193: Dance all their country measures, rounds, and jigs, / What shall we do? Hark, they are all on the hoigh [sic]].
[[UK]N. Ward ‘A Trip to Jamaica’ in Writings (1704) 156: I happen’d one Morning to hear two Tar-Jackets in a very high Dispute].
[US]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.
[US]C. Himes ‘Let Me at the Enemy’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 38: Well now that made me mad, them sendin’ that loppy for me. But I was so high off’n them dreams I let it pass.
[US]J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 532: They were all high now, pulled up by Slade’s excitement.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 87: I thought he was up on tea or somethin, but he was just high with a bike.
[UK]M. Novotny Kings Road 192: ‘Cool it man,’ said Edward, ‘she’s high.’.

5. exhilarated; experiencing the sensation of drugs but without having taken any.

[US]Pic (N.Y.) Mar. 8: hep cats. — people in the know. All they need is coca-cola and Prima’s music to get high.
[US]H. Miller Sexus (1969) 29: When you walk in on an old friend in this euphoric state [...] He says quite naively – ‘Feeling rather high today, eh?’.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 95/1: High. Exhilarated; stimulated,[...] by a fortunate turn of events; elated.
[US]Mad mag. May–June 20: I’m high on this love kick.
[UK]N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 176: They’d get high on themselves, they’d go lost.
[US]E. Tidyman Shaft 153: He was almost high, giddy by the time he reached the sixth or seventh of the places.
[US]P. Califia Macho Sluts 36: She began to coax more sensation from me, trying to see how high I could get.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 4 Sept. 6: It made me laugh; I am very high on it.
N. Pettigrew ‘Wakey Wake’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] He could’ve kissed the sheriff on both cheeks. He felt that high.

6. in fig. use, successful [on the pattern of dope adj.1 ].

[US]Source Aug. 56: Once we get ourselves high like we’re doing now, Snoop, Dre and everybody wanna fuck with us.

In phrases

get high (v.)

1. to drink, to be drunk.

Nathan Ames Childe Harvard 71: Or men ‘get high’ by drinking abstract toddies?
[US]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].
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 6 Jan. 16: The ex-waiter [...] who got ‘high’ at the formal.

2. (drugs) to experience a drug.

[US]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!
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 93: Some of the boys [...] used to drop by to sit in and get high.
[US] 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.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn (1966) 210: Sal would be over and they could get high. Great!
[US]V.E. Smith Jones Men 104: The only way you gon get high today is you rob somebody.
[US]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.
[US]Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 33: Wanna hang out an’ get high?
[US]Source Aug. 83: He ran the streets getting high and looking for new thrills.
[US]S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 74: ‘We all straight. Don’t get high. Don’t pop no Oxy. Don’t smoke a blunt’.
get high behind (v.)

(drugs) to experience a drug.

[US]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.
half-high (adj.)

(US) tipsy, mildly drunk.

[US]C. Himes Imabelle 91: A half-high miss coming from an after-hours joint looked at them.
[US]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.
[US] in DARE.
high as a Georgia pine (adj.) (also higher than a Georgia pine)

(US black) very drunk.

[US](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.
[US]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’.
[US]P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: higher than a Georgia pine . . . flustered.
[US]Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 484: high : Intoxicated, also charged on marijuana. I’m high as a Georgia pine!
[US]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.
E.S. Katz Folklore 27: Proverbial folksay: [...] as high as a Georgia pine.
[US]R. Wilder You All Spoken Here 165: High as a Georgia pine: Intoxicated.
high as a kite (adj.)

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

[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 4/8: Sometimes nothing flurries you, and at other times the slightest sound knocks you kite-high.
[US] ‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 11: high as a kite, adv. phr. Equivalent to sky high.
[UK]‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 180: They were also high as kites. They greeted me with a howl of glee.
[US]J. Kramer Instant Replay 163: Everybody was high as a kite, jumping around and kicking up their heels.
[UK]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.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 249: I walk out high as a kite.

2. a general intensifier.

[US]Columbian (Bloomsbury, PA) 25 Aug. 4/5: I heerd that the banks wuz all goin’ to bust up higher’n a kite.
[US]J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 176: Then we organized, and they busted our union higher’n a kite.
[US](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)].

[US](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.
[US]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.
[UK]‘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.
[UK]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.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 134: I was drunk, high as a kite.
[US]‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 80: I was high as a kite.

4. intoxicated by a drug.

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

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

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

1. enthusiastic about.

[US]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.
[US]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.
[US]H. Ellison ‘May We Also Speak’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 34: I knew they were all pretty high on the kid.
[US]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.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 103: It was your idea. You got me high on it.
[US]‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 113: I was noticing girls more than ever [...] Getting high on ’em.

2. in ample possession of.

[US]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.

SE in slang uses

Pertaining to the UK Und., implying superior

In compounds

high beak (n.) (also high bloke) [beak n.1 (1)/bloke n. (2)]

(US Und.) a judge.

[US]Matsell Vocabulum 41: high beak. The first judge; the president; the governor; the head official.
[US]Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890) 17: High bloke. A judge.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Beak, a judge [...] High Bloke, the Governor or Chief Justice.
[Aus]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.
high daddy (n.)

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

[UK]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.
high front (n.)

(US und.) the chief of detectives.

[US]‘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.
high-go (n.) [go n.1 (3)]

a frolic, a spree.

[UK]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.
[UK]‘Nocturnal Sports’ in Universal Songster II 180/1: Comes the ’igh go, the flash swell [...] queers the tavern coves!
[US]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.
[US]B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 253: high-go. A merry frolic, usually with drinking.
high-grade (n.)

(US drugs) top quality marijuana.

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

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

[US]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.
high knob (n.) [ nob n.2 (1)]

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

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

(UK Und.) leading criminals.

[UK]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.
high pad (n.) [pad n.1 (3)] (UK Und.)

1. the highway.

[UK]Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 84: the hygh pad the hygh waye.
[UK]Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
[UK]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.

[UK]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.
[Ire]Head Eng. Rogue I 183: I thought good to buy a brace of good Geldings [...] they might very well serve for the High Pad.
[UK]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.
[Ire]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.
[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: High pad c. a Highway Robber well Mounted and Armed.
[UK]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.
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
[UK]Scoundrel’s Dict. 29: The High-Pad, or Highway-Man. The Low-Pad, or Foot-robber.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1864) 180: High-pads and low-pads [F&H].
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]‘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.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Pads, robbers.

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

[UK]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.].
high tober (n.) [note EP suggests a mis-reading of high-toby n. and thus mis-definition]

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

[UK]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.
[UK]G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 60: Your flash-man, is following his occupation, scampering on his prancer upon the high tober .
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant [as cit. a.1790].
[UK] ‘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.
[UK]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.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum 41: high tobers Gonnoffs; the highest order of thieves, who generally go well dressed, and frequent watering-places, etc., etc.

General uses

high-ass (adj.) (also high-assed) [-ass sfx/-assed sfx]

(US) haughty.

[US]N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 318: He had this high-assed dignity that Latins have about honour.
[US]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.
[US]S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 347: Terry referred to Julia as ‘that high-assed society cunt’.
[US](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.
highball/baller

see separate entries.

highbeams (n.) [SE highbeams, automobile headlights when they are not dipped]

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

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

2. (US campus) prominent nipples.

[US]P. Dexter God’s Pocket 126: She was slim, and tan for early May. And she had high-beam tits.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
highbinder/binding (n.)

see separate entries.

high blower (n.) [its heavy breathing]

a broken-down horse.

[UK]T. Hood ‘Sketches from Road’ Comic Annual 53: ‘Ah, Sir!’ said Mat, sighing like a high-blower, ‘if you knew me then.’.
‘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.
highbrow

see separate entries.

high brown

see separate entries.

high-cap (v.)

(US black) to show off.

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

see separate entries.

high cotton (n.)

see separate entry.

high-daddy (adj.) [daddy n. (6)]

(US) slick, deceptive, excellent, pleasing.

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

fixed dice that will always show high numbers.

[Scot](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.
high diver (n.) [dive v.]

1. (US) a pickpocket.

[US]‘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.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. one who performs cunnilingus.

[US]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.
[US]G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
[US]Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 21: high-diver (n.): A cunnilinctor.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
[US]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).
high drag (n.) [drag n.1 (8b)]

(US gay) formal clothing of the opposite sex.

[US]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.
high Dutch (n.) [presumably fig. use not of ‘Dutch’ but Hochdeutsch, High German, the German spoken in the southern part of the country]

nonsense, unintelligible gibberish.

[UK]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.
[UK]‘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].
W. Dunkin Parson’s Revels (2010) 94: His Voice was brazen, deep and such, / And well accorded with high Dutch.
‘Poor Jack’ in Bullfinch 200: And, my timbers! what lingo he’d coil and belay, / Why ’twas just all as one as high Dutch.
[UK]M.P. Andrews Better Late than Never 38: You must talk to him in High Dutch. [...] any jargon will suffice.
[UK]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.
[Aus]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.
high-end (adj.) [orig. commercial use]

(US) expensive or first-class.

[US]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].
[US](con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 207: In the booth behind them, two high-end hookers sat drinking Cokes.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 255: Pete bought four limos — high-end wheels — Lincoln Continentals.
[US]C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 28: A high-end Kawasaki crotch rocket.
[US]C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 46: For being such a high-end nuthouse, Rainbow Bend had a serious problem with staff turnover.
highfalutin

see separate entries.

high five

see separate entries.

high fly/-flyer/-flying/

see separate entries.

high guy (n.) [guy n.2 (1)]

(US) an important person.

[US]Ade Artie 100: There was a long spiel by the high guy in the pulpit.
[UK]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.
[US]J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 242: He hangs a haymaker on the high guy’s ear.
[US]J. Lait Put on the Spot 29: Anything you say, Highguy.
high hat/hatted/hatter/hatty

see separate entries.

high-headed (adj.) [orig. used of horses, referring to the way a horse carries its head high]

(US) arrogant, haughty, self-important.

[US] ‘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.
[US]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.
[US]Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 252: high-headed: adj. Proud, arrogant, spirited.
high-heeled/-heeler

see separate entries.

high iron (n.)

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

[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 98: High Iron. – [...] Any main line or track of a railroad as contrasted with the branches.
[US] in DARE.
[US](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.
high jinks (n.) [SE high jinks, any form of game, usu. involving some form of forfeit, that is played by drinkers]

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

[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum 41: high jinks Small gamblers.
high jump (n.)

see separate entry.

high-kicker (n.)

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

[UK]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.
[US]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.
[US]Kansas University Quarterly (Ser. B) VI 88: High kicker: fast person. – General [usage in US].
[US]DN V 238: High kicker [...] An expression of derogation.
[US]Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
[Aus]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].

[Aus]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.
high law/lawyer

see separate entries.

high living (n.) [pun]

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.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: High Living. To lodge in a garret, or cockloft.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
[US]Matsell Vocabulum 41: high-liver A fellow who lives in a garret.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Liver, one who lives in a garret.
highlows (n.) (also high-low shoes) [such footwear stands between low shoes and high boots]

laced boots that reach the ankles.

[UK]‘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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury III 266: A pair of hob-nailed high-lows for my cad-boy.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Oct. Sept. 3/2: The degrading occupation of constructing crabs, Bluchers, high-lows, and stock boots.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]D. Kirwan Palace & Hovel 69: My highlows were the cheese, with breeches to the knees.
[UK]Sl. Dict.
high maintenance (adj.)

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

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.
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.’).
[SA]K. Cage Gayle 80/2: low maintenance adj. easy-going, undemanding person.
[Oth]D. Vandenberg Iron Circle 101: ‘You marry one of those, those [...]’ ‘High-maintenance women, Ma.’ ‘[...] in the end you’ll have nothing but heartache.
[US]C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 235: I lied about not being high-maintenance.
[US]‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Nya Braswell? That chick high maintenance, stic.
[US]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.
high men (n.)

crooked dice that will always produce a high number.

[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[UK] ‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/1: [as cit. 1785].
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
high muck-a-muck (n.)

see separate entry.

high nose/nosed

see separate entries.

high octane

see separate entries.

high pike (n.) [SE pike, the toll paid at a turnpike]

an exorbitantly high price.

[UK]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.
high-post (adj.)

1. (US black) sophisticated, classy.

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

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

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

3. (US black) arrogant, supercilious.

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

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

[US]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.

[US]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.
highpockets (n.) (also high pocket, man with the high pockets)

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

[US]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.’.
[US]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.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: High pocket, a tall man or woman.
[US](con. c.1920) S.H. Holbrook Holy Old Mackinaw 227: High-Pockets made away with a bit batch of boom chains.
[US]R. Chandler Big Sleep 135: Get busy and spin that wheel, highpockets.
[US]C. Rawson Headless Lady (1987) 43: The man with the high pockets is the Great Merlini in person.
[US]L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 128: Think Highpockets is just a little rough for the first forced march.
[US]A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 156: He was a high-pockets with reddish eyebrows.
[US]L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 37: Aw, go piss up a rope, Highpockets.
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
high-post (v.)

(US black) to show off.

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

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

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

2. a trusty n.2

[US]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.
high pressure

see separate entries.

high queen (n.)

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

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

see separate entries.

high roll/roller/rolling

see separate entries.

high-season(ed) brown (n.)

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

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

see separate entries.

high shot (n.) [var. on big shot n. (1)]

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

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

see separate entries.

high sign

see separate entries.

high-step/-stepper/-stepping

see separate entries.

hightail (v.)

see separate entry.

high tec (n.) [play on SE high tec(hnology)]

(drugs) alkyl nitrites.

[Aus]DRUG-ARM Aus. 🌐 Slang Terms: high tec Alkyl nitrite.
high tide (n.)

1. a state of financial security.

[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: High Tide, when the Pocket is full of Money.
[UK]New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[UK]B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
[UK]H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: high-tide having plenty of money.
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 96: High tide — plenty of the possibles.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
[UK]Swell’s Night Guide 112/1: High Tide having plenty of money.
[UK]Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
[US]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.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: High Tide, plenty of money.

2. a state of drunkenness.

[US]‘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.
high-toby (n.)

see separate entry.

high-tone

see separate entries.

high-top fade (n.) [fade n. (4)]

a style of haircut favoured by young blacks.

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.
[US]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.
[US]L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
high-top sweetener (n.)

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

Satirist & Punch (Boston, MA) 1 Feb. 59/3: We are not much of a high-top sweetener and do not expect a solicitation card.
[US]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.
high-up

see separate entries.

highwater/waters

see separate entries.

high yellow

see separate entries.

In phrases

high and dry

see separate entries.

high-cut (adj.)

of wagering, high-stakes.

[UK]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.
[UK](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.
higher than...

see separate entries.

high-line (adj.)

(US) up-market, expensive.

[US]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.
high on the hog (also high off the hog) [that area of the animal from which come the choicest cuts of pork and its by-products]

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

[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 214: He threw his shovel away ’n started eatin’ a little higher up on the hog.
[US]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.’.
[US](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.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 5 Feb. in Proud Highway (1997) 491: He is, you know, living high on the hawg.
[US]J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 89: We’ve been living high off the hog for a long, long time.
[US]R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 152: ‘Prudence [...] ate higher on the hog, is all’.
[US]O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 91: I was livin’ high off the hog.
[US]A. Brooke Last Toke 31: ‘Livin’ high on whitey’s hog,’ was the way Richie put it.
[US]T. Philbin Under Cover 110: People keep dying. They go on, living high on the hog.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 87: Minogue was living high on the hog, with no shortage of money, power or luxury.
[US]B. Bilger Noodling for Flatheads (2001) 196: As blacks joined the middle class, they wanted to live high on the hog as well.
E. Kurtz ‘In the Neighborhood’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] Van Duong lived high on the hog.
high-school harry (n.) (also harry high school)

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

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

(US) important.

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

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

[UK]Swift Polite Conversation 82: Mr. Neverout, I hear you live high.
[US]‘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.’.
[UK]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?
[US]C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 44: The stuff I stole there kept me in funds and living high.
[US]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.
[US]J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 94: Living high, but he doesn’t spend a nickel.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 1 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 365: I am living high in a fine town.
[US]R. Daley Target Blue 181: ‘That kid never lived so high in his life. We made a gentleman out of that guy’ .
to high heaven (adv.) [ext. of to heaven under heaven n.]

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

[Aus]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.
[US]L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 23: That whole place stank to high heaven. He stank to high heaven.
[UK]K. Sampson Powder 101: She’d thought the band sucked to high heaven that night, even allowing for the sound.