knee-highadj.
/ˌniːˈhʌɪ/, U.S. /ˌniˈhaɪ/ Reaching as high as the knees. Frequently in jocular phrase (originally U.S.) knee-high to a grasshopper (and variants), i.e. very short.
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the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > vertical extent > [adjective] > specific
waist high1600
knee-high1742
mast-high1798
shoulder-high1837
horse-high1859
thigh-high1893
stride-high1906
treetop1945
the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [adjective]
shorta900
littleOE
lowa1398
untallc1535
dwarfish1542
shrimpish1549
pygmy1592
shrubby1603
dapper1606
punya1616
runtisha1642
truss1674
sesquipedalian1741
smally1764
petite1766
elfin1796
scram1825
squibbish1826
gnomic1845
dwarf-like1850
knee-high to a grasshopper1851
underhanded1856
nanoid1857
whipping-snapping1861
scrunty1868
midget1875
short-set1883
sawed-off1887
strunty1897
munchkin1930
sawn-off1936
short-arsed1951
1742 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Aug. xvi. 83 By Michaelmas following they were Knee-high.
1799 C. B. Brown Arthur Mervyn I. xv. 141 I never cried in my life, since I was knee-high.
1814 Portsmouth (New Hampsh.) Oracle 2 Apr. 3/2 One..who, as farmer Joe would say, is ‘about knee high to a toad’.
1824 Microscope (Albany, N.Y.) 12 June 55/1 He has lived with me ever since he was ‘knee high to a musquitoe’.
1833 Louisville Herald 20 Mar. It is really the best version of an old story we have heard ‘ever since we were knee-high to a frog’.
1833 J. Neal Down-easters I. 78 A bit of a rogue he was too, when he wa'n't more'n knee high to a bumbly-bee.
1841 W. G. Simms Kinsmen II. 63 Ever since I was knee high to a splinter.
1843 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 4 ii. 309 Heath growing knee-high.
1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xvi. 141 But they an't knee high to a toad to't.
1851 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. XXVIII. 301 You pretend to be my daddies; some of you who are not knee-high to a grasshopper!
1855 Florida Plant. Rec. 132 The cotton in the lower most cut..will avrige knee high.
1878 B. F. Taylor Between Gates 281 Nearly everything will grow in California. It seldom gets knee-high.
1887 Harper's Mag. Oct. 754/2 Their myriads of gray trunks stood knee-high in water.
1892 Dial. Notes 1 230 Knee high to a duck.
1899 M. N. Murfree Bushwhackers iii One of the men said that he had known Jerry since he was ‘knee-high ter a duck’.
1925 R. Graves Welchman's Hose 25 He gibed at modern poets, ‘Show me one Knee-high in stature to a Tennyson.’
1937 Discovery June 170/2 The grass grows in thick tufts and is knee high.
1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 18 Apr. 2 Air gunners..envisage him [sc. a gremlin] as something fairly big—say, knee-high to an air-gunner.
1957 I. Cross God Boy (1958) xxii. 187 Sister Theresa, who is not much more than knee-high to a grasshopper.
1973 H. Carvic Miss Seeton Sings (1974) 35 A little Italian cock sparrow about knee-high to a grasshopper.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1742