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A highball is a long alcoholic drink: usually whisky or brandy over ice, then filled up with a mixer such as soda water, ginger ale, or sometimes water. It comes in a tall glass. In bars you will hear whisky highball, or just highball. Ordinary bar English — a little old-fashioned in some places, still very normal in others. Japan made the whisky highball famous again, and Taiwan bars use the English word too. Though actually, it is not a ball you throw. On old American railroads, a high ball was a signal that meant “go ahead, go fast.” The drink is the tall glass, and the word sits next to lowball, a short drink in a short glass. There is also a verb, to highball, meaning to go at speed, from that same railroad signal — but the drink is the meaning you meet first.
嗨球（威士忌加蘇打水的調酒；菜單上常直接寫 Highball。不要寫「高球」，那會讓人想到高爾夫）
組成high + ball, from old railroad talk — the same ball as in lowball. A high ball was a signal to go; the tall mixed drink took the name later.
同家族的字
- lowballthe short drink in a short glass; same railroad “ball” as a signal
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
highballnoun/ˈhaɪˌbɑl/
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A cocktail made from a spirit plus soda water etc.
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rail-transportrailwaystransportAn all clear or full speed ahead signal.
- A white ball hauled up to the crossbar indicated that the track was clear; a black ball, run up half way, meant stop. This was the origin of the use of the word "highball" to indicate a clear line ahead, which is still used in U.S.A. railway practice.
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climbinghobbieslifestyleA very high bouldering problem, often with a hard landing.
- 2014, EpicTV.com Austrian all rounder Alex Luger climbs what he describes as a highball boulder problem and what most people would call a solo.
highballverb/ˈhaɪˌbɑl/
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To make an estimate which tends toward exaggeration.
- If we highball the price, it comes out to $240. If we lowball it, it's closer to $200.
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datedslangTo move quickly; to hightail.
- Booster-equipped 628 highballs west at Glen Lake, Minn., back in 1947.
- The water-level route, the whistle and the loud staccato exhaust of this great engine recalled most vividly memories of the New York Central Hudsons highballing along the Hudson River between Harmon and Albany!
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。