tall poppy
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.54 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A conspicuously successful person, especially one who attracts envious hostility.
Australian usage; New Zealand usage
noun
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tall, poppy.
Example Sentences
- "1999 June 1, Polly Schneider, Australia Unbound, CIO, page 43, Like many thriving, young Australian execs, Simpson has to be wary of being construed a “tall poppy,” a cultural label placed on people who flaunt their success, based on the idea that a poppy taller than the others gets chopped down."
- "Others have emphasised how it standardised and enforced social mores, cutting down ‘tall poppies’ and shirking those whose race, political beliefs, aspirations – or sexual proclivities – did not or could not bow to peer pressure."
- "This is not so say that any of the health professionals whom the women encountered were bullies or would have been considered by colleagues as bullies; however, they do appear to have been the agents of a bullying maternity service that disliked clients who were tall poppies and was determined to cut them down to size."