high – English adjective declension

Adjective: high

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparative	higher
Superlative	highest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

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, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2025, page 36:]
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:]
The concrete floors of B2B sheds were already being built to an exacting degree of flatness, calibrated using lasers, so that forklifts would not teeter while lifting pallets to the highest shelves. [2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2025:]
the pitch (or: the ball) was high
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:]
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:]
the high priest, the high officials of the court, the high altar
high crimes, the high festival of the sun
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.
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. [1802, William Wordsworth, England 1802:]
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:]
in high spirits
1970, Grateful Dead, High Time, on the album Workingman's Dead
I was having a high time, living the good life.
"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]
"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:]
Ooh! Remember when you got high at McDonald's and told Gangle to kill herself? [2025 June 20, Gooseworx, “Untitled” (16:00 from the start), in The Amazing Digital Circus, episode 5, spoken by Jax (Michael Kovach):]
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 [Sheldonian] Theater:]
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]
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:]
You'll never say hello to you
Until you get it on the red line overload
You'll never know what you can do
Until you get it up as high as you can go [1986 April 24, “Danger Zone”, in Tom Whitlock (lyrics), Giorgio Moroder (music), Top Gun, performed by Kenny Loggins:]
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:]
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:]
Studies also show that absentee ballots cast by voters who are younger or from racial and ethnic minority groups are rejected at higher rates than other absentee ballots. [2020 September 14, Richard H. Pildes, “The three words that can avert an election nightmare”, in CNN:]
Carrots are high in vitamin A. made from a high-copper alloy
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:]
The note was too high for her to sing.
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
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:]
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. [1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:]
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:]
Our defensive line is too high.

Adjectives inflected like high

sallow, smooth, slight, sleigh, sordid, somber, shweet, shrill, shrewd, yellow, yaller, hard knock, DRY, Greek, cut short, unquiet, unclean, indiscreet, chipper, straicht, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *kewk-
3. Proto-Indo-European *kówk-o-s
4. Proto-Germanic *hauhaz
5. Proto-West Germanic *hauh
6. Old English hēah
7. Middle English heigh
8. English high
9. 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 bend; crooked”).
10. Cognates
11. Cognate with Scots heich (“high”), Yola heegh, heigh, heighe, hia, hie (“high”), North Frisian hoog, huuch (“high”), Saterland Frisian hooch, hoog (“high”), West Frisian heech (“high”), Alemannic German hooch (“high”), Central Franconian huh (“high”), Cimbrian hoach, hòach (“high”), Dutch hoog (“high”), German hoch (“high”), German Low German hooch (“high”), Limburgish hoeg (“high”), Luxembourgish héich (“high”), Mòcheno heach (“high”), Vilamovian huch (“high”), Yiddish הויך (hoykh, “high”), Danish høj (“high”), Faroese háur, høgur (“high”), Gutnish haugar (“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”) (from Old High German hoh (“high”)); also with Ancient Greek Καύκᾰσος (Kaúkăsos, “Caucasus”), Latvian koks (“tree”), Lithuanian kúoka (“stick with thick end, pounder, pestle”), Bulgarian ку́ка (kúka, “hook”), Albanian çukë (“peak, summit, top”). See: Dutch Adjectives 'hoog', German Adjectives 'hoch', Swedish Adjectives 'hög', Gothic Adjectives '𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃'.

Verbs referencing "high"

German Adjectives high, Romanian Adjectives high, German Adjectives hoch, Dutch Adjectives hoog, Gothic Adjectives 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃.