knee high to a grasshopper



knee high to a grasshopper

Very young. A grasshopper is tiny, and to stand, metaphorically speaking, no higher than the insect's knee was to be very small or young or both. The expression was usually used by male relatives to point out either a child's youth (“Drive the tractor by yourself?— why, you're not even knee-high to a grasshopper”) or the speaker's experience (“I've driven tractors since I was knee high to a grasshopper”).
See also: grasshopper, high, knee

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Aina (3)ah-ee-nah Japanese
Laurus-Late Roman
Zairadzah-EE-rahItalian
Trai-Vietnamese
Herodes-Ancient Greek, Biblical Greek, Biblical Latin
Zayd-Arabic