tallboy meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

tallboy

nounalso spelled Tallboy

Etymology By surface analysis, tall + boy, but the furniture sense may have been originally modeled after lowboy, related to French bois (“wood”).

Furniture, Lifestyle A tall chest of drawers, or combination of chest on chest, or chest with a small wardrobe on top. Usually with low bracket feet but always resulting in a tall piece of furniture.

US A tall beer can, either 16 or 24 ounces (473 or 710ml).

In her post, which was less than a minute long, she said that the company had sent her a tallboy can of Bud Light with her face on it. An image of the can was edited into the video.2023 April 25, Amanda Holpuch, Julie Creswell, “2 Executives Are on Leave After Bud Light Promotion With Transgender Influencer”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2024:

Nautical, Transport A kind of sail, a spanker.

A kind of long-stemmed wineglass or cup.

A long sheet-metal pipe for a chimney top.

Related terms: highboy, lowboy, carboy

Tallboy

noun

Government, Military, Politics, War Historical An earthquake bomb developed for the British Armed Forces and deployed by the RAF during World War II.

This is understandable inasmuch that the majority of observers were inside the air raid shelters by the time Tallboys started exploding and time delay fuses added even more to the confusion.2002, Jak P. Mallmann Showell, Hitler's U-boat Bases, page 140:
The 12,000-pound ‘Tallboy’ was another creation from Barnes Wallis, who had long been privately working on the new generation of heavyweight, aerodynamic bombs.[…]Reaching a terminal velocity or 3,700 feet per second, the Tallboy was capable of making a crater that would have taken 5,000 tons of earth to fill.2009, Leo McKinstry, Lancaster: The Second World War's Greatest Bomber:

3 more examples

The first occasion that the Tallboy was used in support of the Normandy campaign was on the night 8-9 June against the Saumur railway tunnel.[…]Twenty three Tallboys were dropped, most falling near the markers at the mouth of the tunnel causing great damage.2014, Ben Kite, Stout Hearts: The British and Canadians in Normandy 1944, page 226:
Joe's nose art was Chuck-Chuck, a panda that was variously depicted driving a Jeep, carrying a Tallboy bomb or, to symbolise the British/American connection, wearing a top hat decorated with the American flag and a vest bearing the Union Jack and carrying a cigarette in a holder to represent President Roosevelt while smoking a cigar to represent Winston Churchill.2014, George 'Johnny' Johnson, The Last British Dambuster: One man's extraordinary life and the raid that changed history, page 5:
Production of Tallboys was limited to one a day in Britain, and although thirty per week were being made in America, the convoys bringing them over could be held up by bad weather and the continuing (if decreasing) threat from U-boats.2015, Sam Gooch, Group Captain John 'Joe' Collier DSO, DFC and Bar: