knee high to a grasshopper
knee-high to a grasshopper
1. Very young. When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I loved playing with dolls and stuffed animals. Unfortunately, Ed's mother died when he was still knee-high to a grasshopper.
2. Diminutive, as in size, stature, or importance. He was knee-high to a grasshopper all throughout middle school, but in high school he suddenly shot up to 6'2''. I felt knee-high to a grasshopper when I first joined the massive law firm.
See also: grasshopper
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
knee high to a grasshopper
Very young. A grasshopper is tiny, and to stand, metaphorically speaking, no higher than the insect's knee was to be very small or young or both. The expression was usually used by male relatives to point out either a child's youth (“Drive the tractor by yourself?— why, you're not even knee-high to a grasshopper”) or the speaker's experience (“I've driven tractors since I was knee high to a grasshopper”).
See also: grasshopper, high, knee
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
- be knee-high to a grasshopper
- grasshopper
- knee-high to a grasshopper
- knee-high to a duck
- knee-high to a jackrabbit
- knee-high by the 4th of July
- knee
- all the thing
- in thing, the
- knee-high in (something)