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Highboy

Furnishings
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A tall chest of drawers raised on long legs. It is an elegant form of early storage furniture.

Detailed Definition
A highboy is a tall chest of drawers mounted on a separate legged base, creating a striking vertical piece of furniture for bedrooms and formal chambers. Often associated with early American and English interiors, it carries a sense of dignity and age. In poetry, its elevated drawers may suggest inaccessible family history, carefully preserved finery, or the upward reach of domestic aspiration within an otherwise plain household.
Example
Example in poetry:
The highboy rose above the bedroom like a dark, many-drawered tower; A highboy is a tall chest of drawers, making it useful for images of height, storage, and accumulated history; “From the highboy's top drawer came lace, letters, and the smell of cedar”; A poet may compare a highboy to a watchtower when its upper drawers seem to guard a family's private past
Additional Notes
A highboy’s height gives it a stately, vertical presence in a room. It can suggest early American elegance, accumulated linens, or inherited wealth.
Also Known As
Tallboy High Chest Chest-on-Stand
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