tall
UK /tɔːl/ · US /tɔl/ adjective, noun
Forms taller tallest talls
- adjective (of a person or two-footed creature) Having great vertical extent (usually reckoned from the bottom of the feet to the very top of the head) when standing. (For instance, somebody with a height of over 6 feet would generally be deemed tall.) “Being tall is an advantage in basketball.”
- adjective (of an inanimate thing, such as a building, hill, lamp, etc.) Having its top a long way up; having a great vertical (and often greater than horizontal) extent. “Tall trees, at least about 30m high.”
- adjective (specialized, chiefly US, of a cup of coffee) Smaller than grande, usually 8 ounces (~ 230 ml).
- adjective (of a story) Hard to believe, such as a tall story or a tall tale.
- adjective (obsolete) Obsequious; obedient.
- adjective (obsolete) Seemly; suitable; fitting, becoming, comely; attractive, handsome.
- adjective (obsolete) Bold; brave; courageous; valiant.
- adjective (archaic) Fine; proper; admirable; great; excellent.
- noun (possibly nonstandard) Someone or something that is tall.
- noun A clothing size for taller people. “Do you have this in a tall?”
- noun A tall serving of a drink, especially one from Starbucks, which contains 12 ounces.
Synonyms
high elevated eminent exalted lofty grandiloquent magniloquent improbable marvelous marvellous
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English tall, talle, tal (“seemly, becoming, handsome, good-looking, excellent, good, valiant, lively in speech, bold, great, large, big”), from Old English *tæl, ġetæl (“swift, ready, having mastery of”), from Proto-Germanic *talaz (“submissive, pliable, obedient”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, reckon”).
Cognate with Scots tal (“high, lofty, tall”), Old Frisian tel (“swift”), Old Saxon gital (“quick”), Old High German gizal (“active, agile”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃 (untals, “indocile, disobedient”).
The Oxford English Dictionary notes: "The sense development [of tall] is remarkable, but is paralleled more or less by that of other adjectives expressing estimation, such as buxom, canny, clean, clever, cunning, deft, elegant, handsome, pretty, proper; German klein, as compared with English clean, presents the antithesis to modern tall as compared to tall in early Middle English. It has been conjectured that in the sense 'high of stature' it is a different word, adopted from the Welsh tal in some sense; but the latter is, according to Professor Rhŷs, merely a 16th-century borrowing of the English word (in Owen Pughe's Dictionary erroneously mixed up with the genuine Welsh word tal (“end, brow, forehead”), with which it has no possible connection.)"
Webster’s 1913
- adjective 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.
- adjective Brave; bold; courageous. [Obs.]
Etymology [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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tall”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details