[f. TALL a. + -NESS.] The quality of being tall; greatness of stature.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. xvi. 7. Loke not vpon his countenaunce ner vpon the tallnesse of his person.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 276. Poplar trees, of notable talnesse.
1630. trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., IV. an. 1592. 41. They soone desisted, being terrified with the tallnesse of the ship.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), I. xxiv. 101. It plainly proveth the properness of their parts, and tallness of their industry.
1737. [S. Berington], G. di Lucca’s Mem., 276. Whether being a Stranger of different Features, and Make from their Youth, gave them a more pleasing Curiosity, or the tallness of my Stature something exceeding any of theirs.
1807. Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), VI. 365–6. If he lives and retains his health, tallness of figure will increase the power of that transcendent grace of motion already his.
1827. S. Turner, Mod. Hist. Eng., II. I. xxxi. 524, note. Chaloner … represented him [Henry VIII.] as soon fixing the public eye, by his stately walk, superior tallness, and striking figure.
1870. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xliv. 3. What mattered the tallness of the sons of Anak?
1907. H. James, Amer. Sc., x. 305. I had nowhere, from the first, been infatuated with tallness; I was infatuated only with the question of manners, in their largest sense—to the finer essence of which tallness had already defined itself to me as positively abhorrent.
† b. His tallness, humorous for ‘his highness.’
1656. I. S., Picture New Courtier, 3. An Emissary, employed by his Talnesse to ensnare the plain-hearted.
