highman
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English heimon, equivalent to high + man.
Noun edit
highman (plural highmen)
- A man of rank, especially a high rank; a superior.
- 1834, The New sporting magazine, page 88:
- If not riding for life, that he is riding for immortality; and as the hero may perchance feel (for even a highman may feel like a hero), when he willingly throws away his existence in the hope of earning a glorious name, […]
- 2007, David Farland, The Runelords:
- So the highman sent to the King, asking him to purchase the wool for his troops at a bargain price. "But the highman did not know that rain in the west hills had caused a blight of wool rot on the sheep there. […] "
- (slang, obsolete) A loaded die that yields high numbers.
- 2012, P F Chisholm, A Famine of Horses:
- "He had a couple of bales of crooked dice, a highman and a lowman and one with a bristle on the pip, but he hasn't the way of using them properly yet. […] "