Englishhead and shoulders above
Meaning: At a much higher level.
Example: “Her essay was head and shoulders above the others.”
Origin: Biblical in its origin image: 1 Samuel 9:2 describes Saul as standing "head and shoulders above" everyone else in Israel, a literal description of exceptional height meant to mark him out as a natural king. The same phrase turns up in English a few centuries later with a different sense — Nathaniel Ward used it in 1647 for someone forcefully pushed or shoved forward, "by head and shoulders" — before it settled into the modern meaning nearer the 1800s: not physical height at all, but a stature of skill or quality so far beyond everyone else's that it might as well be measured the same way Saul's was.
More English idioms
- huff and puff To breathe heavily; or to bluster and make empty threats.
- in over one's head Involved in something beyond one's ability to handle.
- it's no skin off someone's nose It has no effect on someone or it is of no concern to someone.
- keep one's head above water To just barely manage, especially financially or with one's workload.
- keep one's nose to the grindstone To work hard without rest.
- knee-high to a grasshopper Very young.
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