high

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 the canyon above Chitistone[.]

1930, Philip Sidney Smith, Mineral Industry of Alaska in 1928 and Administration Report:

Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

Physically elevated, extending above a base or average level:

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

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 incisive.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

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:

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

the pitch (or: the ball) was high

Physically elevated, extending above a base or average level:

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

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

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 thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

Having a specified elevation or height; tall.

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

Elevated in status, esteem, or prestige, or in importance or development; exalted in rank, station, or character.

high crimes, the high festival of the sun

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

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 [tourism] season; the High Middle Ages

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, →OCLC:

1709-1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning
High sauces and rich spices are fetch'd from the Indies.

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

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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

Plain living and high thinking are no more.

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

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: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

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:

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 your fleshlie minde, and not holding the heade, depriuing others of their Crowne?

1591, Henry Barrow, A Plaine Refutation of M. G. Giffardes reprochful booke […], page 33:

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 policy of England.

1858, Joseph Howe, Speeches and Public Letters, page 346:

His family was ardently royalist, and might be compared to a high Tory family on this side the water; with some change of conditions, their prejudices and disposition of the mind were the same.

1875, Henry Reeve, “Introductory Notice”, in Alexis de Tocqueville, translated by Henry Reeve, Democracy in America, page xvi:

My father was the youngest son of a High-Church and high Tory family, the politically leftwing and religiously Nonconformist rebel; and antiimperialist who nearly lost his position in the City by refusing to sign his firm's pro–Boer War petition.

2005, Jesse D. Geller, John C. Norcross, David E. Orlinsky, The Psychotherapist's Own Psychotherapy, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 69:

(of an opinion or practice, obsolete outside set phrases) Extreme, excessive; now specifically very traditionalist and conservative.

Extreme, excessive; now specifically very traditionalist and conservative.

in high spirits

1970, Grateful Dead, High Time, on the album Workingman's Dead
I was having a high time, living the good life.

Elevated in mood; marked by great merriment, excitement, etc.

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 glasses.

2010, Rose Maria McCarthy Anding., High Heels, Honey Lips, & White Powder:

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 in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

Lofty, often to the point of arrogant, haughty, boastful, proud.

"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

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:

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, around […]

1966, Symposium on Antarctic Oceanography: Papers, page 242:

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, the XIXth IUGB Congress: Population dynamics, Congress, page 219:

[…] petrels, which breed primarily in the high Antarctic, the Rauer Islands are fairly central in their breeding distribution. This study documents the breeding biology of these four species of fulmarine petrels on Hop Island, Rauer Islands during […]

1999, Peter John Hodum, Foraging Ecology and Reproductive Energetics of Antarctic Fulmarine Petrels, page 8:

Except for some lithodid crabs that have recently been found in the Antarctic Bellingshausen Sea (Klages et al., 1995; Arana and Retamal, 2000), reptants are not known from high polar areas, where water temperature at the seafloor drops permanently below about 0°C.

2004, Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung, volumes 481-483, page 1:

This study also analyzed the sources of variations over an environmental gradient extending from low (subtropical) to high (sub-Antarctic) latitudes.

2007, Zoological Studies, volume 46, iissues 1-3, page 371

Remote (to the north or south) from the equator; situated at (or constituting) a latitude which is expressed by a large number.

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

Can heavenly minds such high resentment show?

1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.

2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:

Ignition voltage needs to be high enough to overcome the high resistance created by the air gap.

2005, Tracy Martin, How To Diagnose and Repair Automotive Electrical Systems, page 16:

Anyone can determine for himself whether certain wire is high carbon or not. Heat a piece of the wire red hot and while red plunge into water till cold.

1907, The American Exporter, volume 60, page 101:

Large, great (in amount or quantity, value, force, energy, etc).

Carrots are high in vitamin A. made from a high-copper alloy

Having a large or comparatively larger concentration of (a substance, which is often but not always linked by "in" when predicative).

The note was too high for her to sing.

(acoustics) Acute or shrill in pitch, due to being of greater frequency, i.e. produced by more rapid vibrations (wave oscillations).

(phonetics) Made with some part of the tongue positioned high in the mouth, relatively close to the palate.

I have KT742 of the same suit. In other words, a K-high flush.

9-high straight = 98765 unsuited

Royal Flush = AKQJT suited = A-high straight flush

(card games) Greater in value than other cards, denominations, suits, etc.

(poker) Having the highest rank in a straight, flush or straight flush.

Greater in value than other cards, denominations, suits, etc.

Having the highest rank in a straight, flush or straight flush.

North's hand was high. East was in trouble.

Cutler pushed forward the two necessary white chips. No one's hand was high, and Loomis made a slight winning.

1894, Harper's Magazine, volume 88, page 910:

(of a card or hand) Winning; able to take a trick, win a round, etc.

Winning; able to take a trick, win a round, etc.

Epicures do not cook game before it is high.

The tailor liked his meat high.

What he did know was this: something about the situation smelled wrong. Something about it smelled as high as dead fish that have spent three days in the hot sun.

(of meat, especially venison) Strong-scented; slightly tainted/spoiled; beginning to decompose.

Strong-scented; slightly tainted/spoiled; beginning to decompose.

"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:

(informal) 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.

NO NEARER! (arrive! Fr.) the command given by the pilot of quarter-master, to the helmsman, to steer the ship no higher to the direction of the wind than the sails will operate to advance the ship in her course.

1784, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine: Or, A Copious Explanation:

(nautical, of a sailing ship) Near, in its direction of travel, to the (direction of the) wind.

Near, in its direction of travel, to the (direction of the) wind.

Our defensive line is too high.

(sports such as soccer) Positioned up the field, towards the opposing team's goal.

Positioned up the field, towards the opposing team's goal.

en-adj

high (comparative higher, superlative highest)

higher (comparative)
highest (superlative)
hi (alternative)

Sranan Tongo: hei

tūmāhoehoe

referring specifically to the overhead sun

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”), Saterland Frisian hooch (“high”), West Frisian heech (“high”), Dutch hoog (“high”), Low German hoog (“high”), German hoch (“high”), Swedish hög (“high”), Norwegian høy (“high”), Icelandic hár (“high”), Lithuanian kaukas (“bump, boil, sore”).

der

Proto-Indo-European *kewk- (“to elevate, height”)


high

How high above land did you fly?

The desks were piled high with magazines.

Costs have grown higher this year again.

I certainly can't sing that high.


high

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.
Audio (US): (file)

2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

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).

Today's high was 32 °C.

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

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 (lyrics and music), “Wide Awake”, in Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, performed by Katy Perry:

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.

2013 May 15, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian:

That pill gave me a high for a few hours, before I had a comedown.

A period of euphoria, from excitement or from an intake of drugs.

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.

2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

A large high is centred on the Azores.

(meteorology, informal) A large area of elevated atmospheric pressure; an anticyclone.

(card games) The highest card dealt or drawn.

mātāmua

(card games) highest card dealt or drawn


high

The sun higheth.

en-verb

high (third-person singular simple present highs, present participle highing, simple past and past participle highed)

highs (present singular third-person)
highing (participle present)
highed (participle past)
highed (past)
hi (alternative)


high

(obsolete) Alternative form of hie (“to hasten”)

highs (present singular third-person)
highing (participle present)
highed (participle past)
highed (past)


high

Aber es ist großartig im Nebel, es ist wie Schweben! Er hebt die Ufer auf, endlich, eine highe Welt.

2004, Peter Schanz, “Rindfleischs Stolz”, in taz, number 7489 (16 October 2004):

But it’s great in the fog, it’s like floating! It dissolves the shores, finally, a high world.

(informal, chiefly predicative) high (intoxicated with a drug other than alcohol)

de-adj

high (strong nominative masculine singular higher, not comparable)

higher (masculine nominative singular strong)
high (masculine predicative singular)
high (feminine predicative singular)
high (neuter predicative singular)
high (plural predicative)
higher (masculine nominative singular strong without-article)
highe (feminine nominative singular strong without-article)
highes (neuter nominative singular strong without-article)
highe (nominative plural strong without-article)
highen (genitive masculine singular strong without-article)
higher (feminine genitive singular strong without-article)
highen (genitive neuter singular strong without-article)
higher (genitive plural strong without-article)
highem (dative masculine singular strong without-article)
higher (dative feminine singular strong without-article)
highem (dative neuter singular strong without-article)
highen (dative plural strong without-article)
highen (accusative masculine singular strong without-article)
highe (accusative feminine singular strong without-article)
highes (accusative neuter singular strong without-article)
highe (accusative plural strong without-article)
der highe (definite includes-article masculine nominative singular weak)
die highe (definite feminine includes-article nominative singular weak)
das highe (definite includes-article neuter nominative singular weak)
die highen (definite includes-article nominative plural weak)
des highen (definite genitive includes-article masculine singular weak)
der highen (definite feminine genitive includes-article singular weak)
des highen (definite genitive includes-article neuter singular weak)
der highen (definite genitive includes-article plural weak)
dem highen (dative definite includes-article masculine singular weak)
der highen (dative definite feminine includes-article singular weak)
dem highen (dative definite includes-article neuter singular weak)
den highen (dative definite includes-article plural weak)
den highen (accusative definite includes-article masculine singular weak)
die highe (accusative definite feminine includes-article singular weak)
das highe (accusative definite includes-article neuter singular weak)
die highen (accusative definite includes-article plural weak)
ein higher (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
eine highe (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular)
ein highes (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular)
highen (indefinite mixed nominative plural)
keine highen (includes-article indefinite mixed negative nominative plural)
eines highen (genitive includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
einer highen (feminine genitive includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
eines highen (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
highen (genitive indefinite mixed plural)
keiner highen (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
einem highen (dative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
einer highen (dative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
einem highen (dative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
highen (dative indefinite mixed plural)
keinen highen (dative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
einen highen (accusative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
eine highe (accusative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
ein highes (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
highen (accusative indefinite mixed plural)
keine highen (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)

Borrowed from English high. Doublet of hoch.


high

Hai cu noi să fi high!

2009, B.U.G. Mafia (lyrics and music), “Hai să fim high”, in Viața noastră Vol. 2:

high (indefinite masculine neuter singular)
high (feminine indefinite singular)
high (indefinite masculine singular)
high (feminine indefinite neuter plural)