tall

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lofty in style

   They engaged in so much tall talk.

2. 2
   adj

   Having a vertical extent greater than the average. For example, somebody with a height of over 6 feet would generally be considered to be tall.

   Being tall is an advantage in basketball.

3. 3
   adj

   Having its top a long way up; having a great vertical (and often greater than horizontal) extent.

   Tall trees, at least about 30m high.

4. 4
   adj

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

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

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   noun

   A clothing size for taller people.

   Do you have this in a tall?

7. 7
   adj

   great in vertical dimension

8. 8
   noun

   a garment size for a tall person

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 devel…