High-go, subs. (common).—A drinking bout; a frolic.
High-heeled Shoes. To have high-heeled shoes on, verb. phr. (American).—To set up as a person of consequence; to do the grand (q.v.).
High Horse. To be (or get) on (or ride) the high horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To give oneself airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to take offence. [Fr. monter sur ses grands chevaux. The simile is common to most languages.]
1716. Addison, Freeholder, 5 Mar. He told me, he did not know what travelling was good for, but to teach a man to ride the great horse, to jabber French, and to talk against passive obedience.
1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. He was determined to ride the high horse—and that there should be no Equality Jack in future.
1842. Comic Almanack, p. 327. Yet Dublin deems the foul extortion fair, And swears that, as he’s ridden the high horse, So long and well, she now will make him mayor.
1864. Times, 5 July. Mr. Gladstone in the Dano-German Debate. The right hon. gentleman then got on what I may call his high horse, and he would not give us the slightest opinion upon any matter of substantive policy, because that, he said, would be accepting office upon conditions.
1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 2nd Period, 3rd Narr., ch. ii. Miss Rachael has her faults—‘I’ve never denied it,’ he began. ‘And riding the high horse now and then is one of them.’
High-jinks, subs. (old).—1. An old game variously played. [Most frequently dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain for a time a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order. If they departed from the characters assigned … they incurred forfeits, which were compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper.—Guy Mannering, 1836. Note to ch. xxxii.]
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Highjinks, a Play at Dice who Drinks.