high

Physically elevated, extending above a base or average level:

Adjective

  1. Physically elevated, extending above a base or average level:
    • The balloon rose high in the sky. The wall was high. a high mountain
    • Upon the highest spray of every mounting pole, Those Quirristers are pearcht with many a speckled breast. - 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 13 p. 214:
    • The Chitistone River Valley offers a more direct route for travel from McCarthy to the White River and the Shushana gold placers than Skolai Creek, but it involves a high climb over the so-called “goat trail” to avoid...

    1. Very elevated; extending or being far above a base; tall; lofty.

    2. Relatively elevated; rising or raised above the average or normal level from which elevation is measured.

      • She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but...
      • A nightgown with a high neck and long sleeves may have the fullness set into a yoke. - 1919, Martha Van Rensselaer, Flora Rose, Helen Canon, A Manual of Home-Making, page 376:
      • The concrete floors of B2B sheds were already being built to an exacting degree of flatness, calibrated using lasers, so that forklifts would not teeter while lifting pallets to the highest shelves. - 2019 November 21,...

    3. (baseball, of a ball) Above the batter's shoulders.

      • the pitch (or: the ball) was high

    4. Pertaining to (or, especially of a language: spoken in) an area which is at a greater elevation, for example more mountainous, than other regions.

  2. Having a specified elevation or height; tall.
    • three feet high three Mount Everests high
    • I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a...
  3. Elevated in status, esteem, or prestige, or in importance or development; exalted in rank, station, or character.
    • The oldest of the elves' royal family still conversed in High Elvish.
    • The Barnacles were a very high family, and a very large family. They were dispersed all over the public offices, and held all sorts of public places. - 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London:...
    • Not a one of them was old enough to know what the high past of Liani separatism had really been like. - 2007, Sheila Finch, Shaper's Legacy, →ISBN, page 122:

    1. Most exalted; foremost.

      • the high priest, the high officials of the court, the high altar

    2. Of great importance and consequence: grave (if negative) or solemn (if positive).

      • high crimes, the high festival of the sun

    3. Consummate; advanced (e.g. in development) to the utmost extent or culmination, or possessing a quality in its supreme degree, at its zenith.

      • high (i.e. intense) heat; high (i.e. full or quite) noon; high (i.e. rich or spicy) seasoning; high (i.e. complete) pleasure; high (i.e. deep or vivid) colour; high (i.e. extensive, thorough) scholarship; high tide;...
      • High time it is this war now ended were. - 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “(please specify the sonnet number or title)”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby,...
      • 1709-1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning High sauces and rich spices are fetch'd from the Indies.

    4. Advanced in complexity (and hence potentially abstract and/or difficult to comprehend).

      • to hear and answer such high things - 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
      • Plain living and high thinking are no more. - 1802, William Wordsworth, England 1802:
  4. Extreme, excessive; now specifically very traditionalist and conservative.
    • high church High Tory
    • Furder, what wil you answeare for your keping a daye, cessation &c to St. Michael & al Angells? how wil you excuse your self of most high idolatrie, advancing your self in thinges you neuer sawe, rashlie puffed vp of...
    • The letter of a "Pioneer" was sent to the Chronicle office by a very respectable man, of a high conservative family, but whose interests have been injuriously affected by the constant fluctuations in the commercial...
  5. Elevated in mood; marked by great merriment, excitement, etc.
    • in high spirits
    • 1970, Grateful Dead, High Time, on the album Workingman's Dead I was having a high time, living the good life.
  6. Keen, enthused.
    • "Conversely, just because I am not high on positivity, it does not mean I am necessarily high on negativity." - 2016, David Chan, Enabling Positive Attitudes and Experiences in Singapore, page 140:
    • I'm not that high about the relationship. - 2010, Lena, quoted by S. Rosenbloom, The Multiracial Urban High School: Fearing Peers and Trusting Friends, chapter four
  7. Intoxicated; under the influence of a mood-altering drug, formerly usually alcohol, but now (from the mid-20th century) usually not alcohol but rather marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc.
    • "Three extremely high people showing up at the animal shelter like WE FOUND A DOG would be really funny, but..." - 2018, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), 3879: Pointy Boi:
    • Ooh! Remember when you got high at McDonald's and told Gangle to kill herself? - 2025 June 20, Gooseworx, “Untitled” (16:00 from the start), in The Amazing Digital Circus, episode 5, spoken by Jax (Michael Kovach):
  8. Luxurious; rich.
    • high living, the high life
    • I was living the high lifestyle in famous sex clubs, relaxing on luxurious sofas, in the saunas and whirlpools, enjoying moments of excitement with my male and female companions while sipping champagne from crystal...
  9. Lofty, often to the point of arrogant, haughty, boastful, proud.
    • a high tone
    • An high looke, and a proud heart, […] is sinne. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 21:4:
    • His forces, after all the high discourses, amounted really but to eighteen hundred foot. - 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars...
  10. With tall waves.
    • The sea is as high as ever. I shouldn't think any boat could put out today. - 1939, Agatha Christie, chapter 11, in And Then There Were None:
  11. Remote (to the north or south) from the equator; situated at (or constituting) a latitude which is expressed by a large number.
    • high latitude, fish species in high arctic and antarctic areas
    • But other euphausiids, Euphausia crystallorophias, are found in the pack ice region of the high Antarctic as food of Blue and Minke Whales (Marr, 1956). E. vallentini is very important in the lower Antarctic region,...
    • We predict that L. arctica will coincide with the whole reindeer-caribou distribution, probably excepted Svalbard, South Georgia and other high-polar areas. - 1990, International Union of Game Biologists, Transactions,...
  12. Large, great (in amount or quantity, value, force, energy, etc).
    • My bank charges me a high interest rate.
    • I was running a high temperature and had high cholesterol.
    • high voltage high prices high winds a high number

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kewk- Proto-Indo-European *kówk-o-s Proto-Germanic *hauhaz Proto-West Germanic *hauh Old English hēah Middle English heigh English high From Middle English high, heigh, heih, from Old English hēah (“high, tall, lofty, high-class, exalted, sublime, illustrious, important, proud, haughty, deep, right”), from Proto-West Germanic *hauh (“high”), from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz (“high”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewk- (“to bend; crooked”). Cognates Cognate with Scots heich (“high”), Yola heegh, heigh, heighe, hia, hie (“high”), North Frisian hoog, huuch (“high”), Saterland Frisian hooch, hoog (“high”), West Frisian heech (“high”), Alemannic German hooch (“high”), Central Franconian huh (“high”), Cimbrian hoach, hòach (“high”), Dutch hoog (“high”), German hoch (“high”), German Low German hooch (“high”), Limburgish hoeg (“high”), Luxembourgish héich (“high”),...

Forms

higher highest heigh hi

Synonyms

haute hawt tall stoned drunk

Antonyms

low

Hyponyms

chest-high knee-high sky-high super-high thigh-high ultra-high waist-high

Related

mighty

Derived

ace-high ahigh aim high ankle-high ask how high when someone says jump at the high port blow sky high Bowland Forest High come hell or high water come high contact high fly high for the high jump friends in higher places friends in high places on high get high get off one's high horse happy as a clam at high water have high hopes headhigh height heighth hell or high water

Adverb

  1. In or to an elevated position.
    • How high above land did you fly?
    • The desks were piled high with magazines.
  2. In or at a great value.
    • Costs have grown higher this year again.
  3. At a pitch of great frequency.
    • I certainly can't sing that high.

Forms

higher highest heigh hi

Noun

  1. A high point or position, literally (as, an elevated place; a superior region; a height; the sky; heaven) or figuratively (as, a point of success or achievement; a time when things are at their best, greatest, most numerous, maximum, etc).
    • It was one of the highs of his career.
    • Inflation reached a ten-year high.
    • South Korea has reached a new high in a kind of air pollution measured in fine dust. - 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

    1. The maximum atmospheric temperature recorded at a particular location, especially during one 24-hour period.

      • Today's high was 32 °C.
  2. A period of euphoria, from excitement or from an intake of drugs.
    • Falling from cloud nine / Crashing from the high / I'm letting go tonight / Yeah, I'm falling from cloud nine - 2012, Katy Perry, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Dr. Luke, Cirkut, “Wide Awake”, in Teenage Dream: The Complete...
    • They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating...
    • That pill gave me a high for a few hours, before I had a comedown.
  3. A drug that gives such a high.
    • No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and...
  4. A large area of elevated atmospheric pressure; an anticyclone.
    • A large high is centred on the Azores.
  5. The highest card dealt or drawn.
  6. Ellipsis of high school.
    • He’s the old man’s only son. Some baby! Yep, right behind ya. Nope, he donno me. I was in Grammar when he was in High. - 1932, Grace Livingston Hill, chapter 6, in The Patch of Blue, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark...
    • The high school experience is one unmatched and irreplaceable. Its effects on our lives continue long after walking through our high’s doorways one last time. - 1998, Kristen N Maloney, “Over the Edge”, in Volume 1:...
    • The reassignment follows a dispute between her and an association of parents of Nova High’s band members over how the band program was being run. - 1999 July 1, Alan Diaz, “Mom accused of making threats”, in Sun...

Forms

highs heigh hi

Related

crash

Derived

herbal high junior high jr. high legal high mini-high senior high sen high

Verb obsolete

  1. To rise.
    • The sun higheth.

Origin

From Middle English hegen, heghen, heien, a conflation of Old English ġehēgan (“to perform, conduct”) (from Proto-West Germanic *hauwjan) and hēan (“to raise up, exalt”) (from *hauhijan), also influenced by heigh (“high”).

Forms

highs highing highed

Verb alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative form of hie (“to hasten”).

Origin

See hie.

Forms

highs highing highed