A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

high up the stick • up the stick
high up the stick —(dated sl.) standing high in one’s profes-
sion: All my acquaintance among the doctors are so high up
the stick, they have no time to spare…
up the stick —(UK sl.) pregnant: Mary is up the stick; funny
how everyone counts the months.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
verbal phrase up sticks—(also: up stakes) leave one’s home or set-
tled way of life and move on to another place: What on earth
impels a man … suddenly to up sticks and come back to this
distressful country?
high water • highwaters
high water —
1
. the tide when the surface of the water is at
its greatest elevation: The height from low water to high water
is called the range of the tide. 2. a flooded river or lake: She
wanted a new house after a high water on the river carried her
old one away.
highwaters —(sl.) trousers that are shorter than fashion dic-
tates: His jovial blue highwaters are replaced by dark black
Levi’s Hard Jeans.
high words • high-sounding words
high words —words spoken in a raised or loud voice (usually
uttered in a heated argument): A short altercation ended
speedily in high words on both sides.
high-sounding words —pretentious, bombastic words: Soph -
o morical, a term applied to speeches and writings containing
high-sounding words and but little sense.
See also: high language / high-flown language.
highball something • lowball something
highball something —(coll.) drive a vehicle at high speed:
Our conductor called “All aboard!” … then highballed the
train. A few minutes later he got a phone call stating a pas-
senger had gotten left behind.
lowball something —(coll.) deliberately underestimate or
understate a cost, figure, etc.: This is all my fault, but he was
one of my first clients and I lowballed the price just to get the
work.