the.com/tallboy
the can that admits one beer was never going to be enough.
means A tallboy is a tall chest of drawers (often one set atop another), or, in casual drinks talk, a tall narrow can of beer.
from A compound of plain English 'tall' and 'boy.' The furniture sense came first: by the 18th century, 'tallboy' named a high double chest, where 'boy' likely played on its earlier life as a name for tall stemmed glasses and similar oversized objects — the word's been attached to assorted lanky things over the years. The beer-can sense is a much later American borrowing of the same logic: tall, upright, and a bit cheeky about it.
- original sense
- 1700s term for a tall four-legged drinking goblet
- furniture twin
- also a tall chest of drawers, no beer included
- volume
- typically 16 ounces, a third more than standard
- wartime bomb
- Tallboy was a 12,000-pound RAF earthquake bomb
- design logic
- narrow base saves shelf space, demands stronger grip
for instance
tallboy dresser — furniture piece that is taller than wide, common bedroom storage with 5-7 drawers