What it means
A playful old-fashioned way to say someone was very little, usually when you're talking about them as a small child from years back. It often carries that warm look-back vibe, like you've known them since they were tiny and forever underfoot causing lovable havoc.
Usage examples
"I’ve known him since he was knee high to a grasshopper, tearing round his grandma’s yard with scruffy knees. Now he’s got a mortgage and back pain."
"I have been coming to this bakery since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, the smell takes me straight back."
"Look at him captaining the team now, and I remember him knee-high to a grasshopper chasing pigeons in the square."
"I've known Ellie since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, running about the farm in wellies three sizes too big."
"He acts all hard now, but I remember when he was knee-high to a grasshopper and crying because a goose chased him."
Where it comes from
An old American country saying that turns tiny into a joke picture. A grasshopper is already small, so if a kid is only knee-high to one, they’re basically miniature in the tale. It’s been around in US speech since at least the 19th century and stuck as a warm, folksy way to talk about somebody’s little-child days.
