tall poppy
English
editEtymology
editA metaphor of something conspicuous that should be lopped. Australian from 1902.
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
edittall poppy (plural tall poppies)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tall, poppy.
- (Australia, New Zealand) A conspicuously successful person, especially one who attracts envious hostility.
- 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.
- 2003, Robert Aldrich, Colonialism and Homosexuality, page 240:
- 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.
- 2010, Mary Nolan, Home Birth: The Politics of Difficult Choices, page 46:
- 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.
- 1999 June 1, Polly Schneider, Australia Unbound, CIO, page 43,
Derived terms
editReferences
edit- OED 2006