high
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: hī
ipa: /haɪ/
ipa: [haɪ̯]
rhymes: -aɪ
homophone: hi
homophone: Hi
homophone: hie
Forms: form: highs
form: heigh
form: hi
Etymology: 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 elevate, height”).
Cognate with Scots heich (“high”), North Frisian hoog, huuch (“high”), Saterland Frisian hooch, hoog (“high”), West Frisian heech (“high”), Cimbrian hoach, hòach (“high”), Dutch hoog, hooge (“high”), German hoch (“high”), German Low German hooch (“high”), Luxembourgish héich (“high”), Mòcheno heach (“high”), Vilamovian huch (“high”), Yiddish הויך (hoykh, “high”), Danish høj (“high”), Gutnish haugar (“high”), Faroese háur, høgur (“high”), Icelandic hár (“high”), Norwegian Bokmål høg, høy (“high”), Norwegian Nynorsk høg, håg, hå (“high”), Swedish hög (“high”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃 (hauhs, “high”), Vandalic *oas (“high”), Old French haut (“high”), Lithuanian kaukas (“bump, boil, sore”).
Senses: examples: text: It was one of the highs of his career.
text: Inflation reached a ten-year high.
text: South Korea has reached a new high in a kind of air pollution measured in fine dust.
ref: 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)
glosses: 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).
examples: text: Today's high was 32 °C.
glosses: 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).
The maximum atmospheric temperature recorded at a particular location, especially during one 24-hour period.
examples: text: Falling from cloud nine / Crashing from the high / I'm letting go tonight / Yeah, I'm falling from cloud nine
ref: 2012, Katy Perry, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Dr. Luke, Cirkut, “Wide Awake”, in Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, performed by Katy Perry:
text: 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 high.
ref: 2013 May 15, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian:
text: That pill gave me a high for a few hours, before I had a comedown.
glosses: A period of euphoria, from excitement or from an intake of drugs.
examples: text: 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 ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
ref: 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
glosses: A drug that gives such a high.
examples: text: A large high is centred on the Azores.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: A large area of elevated atmospheric pressure; an anticyclone.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: The highest card dealt or drawn.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1932, Grace Livingston Hill, chapter 6, in The Patch of Blue, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark Company, Limited, published in the 20th century, →OCLC, page 128:
text: 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.
ref: 1998, Kristen N Maloney, “Over the Edge”, in Volume 1: Forsaken, Bloomington, Ind.: Booktango, →ISBN:
text: 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.
ref: 1999 July 1, Alan Diaz, “Mom accused of making threats”, in Sun Sentinel, Palm Beach edition, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4B, column 4:
text: If you look very closely in Monday's letters page, I'm supervising those non-plagiarising students sitting for their exam in Chatswood High's hall.
ref: 2005 August 30, Bob Selinger, “Racist slurs unacceptable in any context”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, N.S.W., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2006, letters:
text: […] 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in February, […] Freeman High upgraded its cameras to high definition after last year’s shooting. […] By this spring, Huffman High in Birmingham, Ala., had, in security parlance, been “hardened,” […] At Florida’s Forest High in April, for example, teachers and teens who had undergone safety training locked classroom doors […] A month later, at Dixon High in Illinois, resource officer Mark Dallas heard shots near the school gym, […]
ref: 2018 November 13, John Woodrow Cox, Steven Rich, “Armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards and secret snipers”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2018:
glosses: Ellipsis of high school.
Derived terms: herbal high
junior high
jr. high
legal high
mini-high
senior high
sen high
Related terms: crash