Tall

• POS: Adjective

CIDE DICTIONARY

Tall, a. [OE. tal seemly, elegant, docile (?); of uncertain origin; cf. AS. un-tala, un-tale, bad, Goth. untals indocile, disobedient, uninstructed, or W. & Corn. tal high, Ir. talla meet, fit, proper, just.].

•  High in stature; having a considerable, or an unusual, extension upward; long and comparatively slender; having the diameter or lateral extent small in proportion to the height; as, a tall person, tree, or mast.  [1913 Webster]

  "Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall."  [1913 Webster]
•  Brave; bold; courageous.  [1913 Webster]

  "As tall a trencherman
  As e'er demolished a pye fortification."  [1913 Webster]

  "His companions, being almost in despair of victory, were suddenly recomforted by Sir William Stanley, which came to succors with three thousand tall men."  [1913 Webster]
•  Fine; splendid; excellent; also, extravagant; excessive.  B. Jonson.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- High; lofty.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Tall, adj. & adv.
--adj.
1 of more than average height.
2 of a specified height (looks about six feet tall).
3 higher than the surrounding objects (a tall building).
4 colloq. extravagant or excessive (a tall story; tall talk).
--adv. as if tall; proudly; in a tall or extravagant way (sit tall).

Idiom

tall drink a drink served in a tall glass. tall hat = top hat (see TOP(1)). tall order an exorbitant or unreasonable demand. tall ship a sailing ship with a high mast.

Derivative

tallish adj. tallness n.

Etymology

ME, repr. OE get{aelig}l swift, prompt

THESAURUS

Tall

Gongoresque, Johnsonian, a bit thick, a bit thin, a mile long, absurd, affected, altitudinous, bedizened, beyond belief, big, big-sounding, bombastic, bumper, colossal, considerable, convoluted, declamatory, doubtable, doubtful, dubious, dubitable, elevated, euphuistic, exaggerated, extensive, extravagant, far-flung, far-reaching, fargoing, flamboyant, flaming, flashy, flaunting, fulsome, gangling, gangly, garish, gassy, gaudy, giant, gigantic, goodly, grand, grandiloquent, grandiose, grandisonant, great, hard of belief, hard to believe, healthy, high, high-flowing, high-flown, high-flying, high-reaching, high-sounding, high-swelling, highfalutin, highfaluting, huge, implausible, improbable, inconceivable, incredible, inflated, inkhorn, interminable, labyrinthine, lank, lanky, large, large-scale, leggy, lengthy, lexiphanic, lofty, long, long-legged, longish, longsome, lurid, magniloquent, man-sized, meretricious, no end of, not deserving belief, numerous, open to doubt, open to suspicion, orotund, ostentatious, outrageous, overblown, overdone, overelaborate, overinvolved, overwrought, passing belief, pedantic, pompous, preposterous, pretentious, problematic, questionable, rangy, rhetorical, ridiculous, sensational, sensationalistic, sententious, sesquipedal, sesquipedalian, showy, sizable, sky-high, skyscraping, soaring, sonorous, staggering belief, statuesque, steep, stilted, substantial, suspect, suspicious, swollen, thick, thin, tidy, tortuous, towering, unbelievable, unconvincing, unearthly, ungodly, unimaginable, unthinkable, unworthy of belief, windy, without end

ROGET THESAURUS

Tall

Height

N height, altitude, elevation, eminence, pitch, loftiness, sublimity, tallness, stature, procerity, prominence, colossus, giant, grenadier, giraffe, camelopard, mount, mountain, hill alto, butte, monticle, fell, knap, cape, headland, foreland, promontory, ridge, hog's back, dune, rising ground, vantage ground, down, moor, moorland, Alp, uplands, highlands, heights, knob, loma, pena, picacho, tump, knoll, hummock, hillock, barrow, mound, mole, steeps, bluff, cliff, craig, tor, peak, pike, clough, escarpment, edge, ledge, brae, dizzy height, tower, pillar, column, obelisk, monument, steeple, spire, minaret, campanile, turret, dome, cupola, skyscraper, pole, pikestaff, maypole, flagstaff, top mast, topgallant mast, ceiling, high water, high tide, flood tide, spring tide, altimetry, batophobia, satellite, spy-in-the-sky, high, elevated, eminent, exalted, lofty, tall, gigantic, Patagonian, towering, beetling, soaring, hanging (gardens), elevated, upper, highest, high reaching, insessorial, perching, upland, moorland, hilly, knobby, mountainous, alpine, subalpine, heaven kissing, cloudtopt, cloudcapt, cloudtouching, aerial, overhanging, incumbent, overlying, superincumbent, supernatant, superimposed, prominent, tall as a maypole, tall as a poplar, tall as a steeple, lanky, on high, high up, aloft, up, above, aloof, overhead, airwind, upstairs, abovestairs, in the clouds, on tiptoe, on stilts, on the shoulders of, over head and ears, breast high, over, upwards, from top to bottom, e meglio cader dalle finistre che dal tetto.