knee-high to a grasshopper

Slang definitions & phrases for knee-high to a grasshopper

knee-high to a grasshopper

adjective phrase

(Variations: bumblebee or duck or frog or mosquito or spit or splinter or toad may replace grasshopper) Very short or small, esp because young: He's been smoking since he was knee-high to a grasshopper

[1851+; knee high to a toad is found by 1814]


Idioms and Phrases with knee-high to a grasshopper

knee-high to a grasshopper

Quite young, as in I haven't seen him since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. This hyperbolic expression, dating from about 1850 and alluding to someone's youth, replaced the earlier knee-high to a mosquito or bumblebee or splinter.