tall poppy
tall poppy · tall poppies
A conspicuously successful person, especially one who attracts envious hostilityA conspicuously successful person, especially one who attracts envious hostility.
Meaning
2 senses(Australia, New Zealand)A conspicuously successful person, especially one who attracts envious hostility.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tall, poppy.
Origin
A metaphor of something conspicuous that should be lopped. First use appears c. 1710.A metaphor of something conspicuous that should be lopped. First use appears c. 1710.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: tall poppies| Singular | tall poppy |
|---|---|
| Plural | tall poppies |
regular
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.