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tall

adj
/tɔːl/UK/taːl//tɔl/US

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.)"

  1. derived from *dol-✻
  2. inherited from *talaz✻ — “submissive, pliable, obedient”
  3. inherited from *tæl✻
  4. inherited from tall

Definitions

  1. Having a top that is far up (contrast

    Having a top that is far up (contrast: deep (having a bottom that is far down' ).)

    • Being tall is an advantage in basketball.
    • Ostriches are the tallest living birds.
    • Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,[…], and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

  2. Hard to believe, such as a tall story or a tall tale.

    • "That's tall talk." "Not an inch taller than the truth."

  3. Old senses that arose before the height-related senses

  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Someone or something that is tall.

      • But in the second generation of hybrids (from seed of the first) talls and dwarfs were both present, and in the proportion of twelve talls to four dwarfs.
      • The industries that best accommodate talls are those that have faced personal injury lawsuits.
      • Fremantle remains unsure about the status a pair of key talls ahead of a defining clash with Adelaide at Optus Stadium.

    2. A clothing size for taller people.

      • Do you have this in a tall?

    3. A tall serving of a drink, especially one from Starbucks, which contains 12 ounces.

The neighborhood

Derived

big and tall, cut down the tall poppy, feel eight feet tall, feel nine feet tall, feel ten feet tall, feel twelve feet tall, keep it tall, mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails, megatall, plain tall, ride tall in the saddle, stand tall, supertall, tall bluestem, tall-case clock, tall, dark and handsome, tall drink, tall drink of water, tall fescue, tall glass of water, tallgrass, tallie, tall in the saddle, tallish, tall man, tall meadowrue, tallness, tall nightshade, tall oaks from little acorns grow, tall oil, tall one, tall order, tall pawn, tall pocosin, tall poppy, tall poppy syndrome, tall reed, tall ship, tallsome, tall story · +5 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at tall. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01tall02tale03victim04religious05committed06course07mast

A definitional loop anchored at tall. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at tall

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA