tall \tall\, a. compar. taller; superl. tallest. 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.
   1. 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.
      1913 webster

            two of far nobler shape, erect and tall. --milton.
      1913 webster

   2. brave; bold; courageous. obs.
      1913 webster

            as tall a trencherman
            as e'er demolished a pye fortification. --massinger.
      1913 webster

            his companions, being almost in despair of victory,
            were suddenly recomforted by sir william stanley,
            which came to succors with three thousand tall men.
                                                  --grafton.
      1913 webster

   3. fine; splendid; excellent; also, extravagant; excessive.
      obs. or slang --b. jonson.
      1913 webster

   syn: high; lofty.

   usage: tall, high, lofty. high is the generic term, and
          is applied to anything which is elevated or raised
          above another thing. tall specifically describes that
          which has a small diameter in proportion to its
          height; hence, we speak of a tall man, a tall steeple,
          a tall mast, etc., but not of a tall hill. lofty has a
          special reference to the expanse above us, and denotes
          an imposing height; as, a lofty mountain; a lofty
          room. tall is now properly applied only to physical
          objects; high and lofty have a moral acceptation; as,
          high thought, purpose, etc.; lofty aspirations; a
          lofty genius. lofty is the stronger word, and is
          usually coupled with the grand or admirable.
          1913 webster tallage
see also:
taller tallest tall high lofty 

tall
     adj 1: great in vertical dimension; high in stature; "tall people";
            "tall buildings"; "tall trees"; "tall ships" ant: short
     2: lofty in style; "he engages in so much tall talk, one never
        really realizes what he is saying" syn: grandiloquent,
        magniloquent
     3: impressively difficult; "a tall order" syn: talla
     4: too improbable to admit of belief; "a tall story" syn: improbable,
         marvelous, marvellous, talla
see also:
short grandiloquent magniloquent talla improbable marvelous 
marvellous 

141 moby thesaurus words for "tall":
   gongoresque, johnsonian, a bit thick, a bit thin, a mile long,
   absurd, affected, altitudinous, bedizened, beyond belief, big,
   big-sounding, bombastic, bumper, colossal, considerable,
   convoluted, declamatory, doubtable, doubtful, dubious, dubitable,
   elevated, euphuistic, exaggerated, extensive, extravagant,
   far-flung, far-reaching, fargoing, flamboyant, flaming, flashy,
   flaunting, fulsome, gangling, gangly, garish, gassy, gaudy, giant,
   gigantic, goodly, grand, grandiloquent, grandiose, grandisonant,
   great, hard of belief, hard to believe, healthy, high,
   high-flowing, high-flown, high-flying, high-reaching,
   high-sounding, high-swelling, highfalutin, highfaluting, huge,
   implausible, improbable, inconceivable, incredible, inflated,
   inkhorn, interminable, labyrinthine, lank, lanky, large,
   large-scale, leggy, lengthy, lexiphanic, lofty, long, long-legged,
   longish, longsome, lurid, magniloquent, man-sized, meretricious,
   no end of, not deserving belief, numerous, open to doubt,
   open to suspicion, orotund, ostentatious, outrageous, overblown,
   overdone, overelaborate, overinvolved, overwrought, passing belief,
   pedantic, pompous, preposterous, pretentious, problematic,
   questionable, rangy, rhetorical, ridiculous, sensational,
   sensationalistic, sententious, sesquipedal, sesquipedalian, showy,
   sizable, sky-high, skyscraping, soaring, sonorous,
   staggering belief, statuesque, steep, stilted, substantial,
   suspect, suspicious, swollen, thick, thin, tidy, tortuous,
   towering, unbelievable, unconvincing, unearthly, ungodly,
   unimaginable, unthinkable, unworthy of belief, windy,
   without end

tall
     
         tac list language.
     
        "tall - a list processor for the philco 2000", j. feldman,
        cacm 59:484-485 sep 1962.
     
        1995-03-01