high-water mark
6
4.2
- noun
- /ˈhaɪˌwɔːtər mɑrk/
- The team's championship victory was the high-water mark of their season, showcasing their skill and determination.
Examples
-
By 2007, the coalition's re-internment rate exceeded 9 percent, the high-water mark for the war.
Academic text (2009) -
I only compare against my personal high water marks to date.
Blog text (11) -
The high water mark on the kitchen wall is evidence that there was a flood.
Blog text (5) -
The high water mark on the kitchen wall is evidence there was a flood.
Blog text (5) -
Was this time out, here under this roof, some high-water mark in all his life?
Fiction book (1991) -
Additionally, the Republican high water mark with the Hispanic vote was George W. Bush's 40% in 2004.
Blog text (15) -
What's interesting is that, according to Mr. de Mesquita's model, this is pretty much the high-water mark for global green rhetoric.
Blog text (27) -
In 2011, more businesses (254) quit California than the year before (202), which was a high-water mark.
Blog text (2) -
The early 1970s were, in many ways, a high-water mark for the national observatories at Kitt Peak and CTIO.
Academic text (2003) -
The LSC's current budget of $400 million is less than half the estimated $848 million the agency would need to match its high-water mark just before the "dark days" of funding restraints during the Reagan-Bush administrations began in 1981.
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
384
2.1
The highest point something reaches, like a mountain or an achievement
34
5.8
The highest point of success or achievement
33
3.3
The most exciting or important part of an experience
18
3.7
The top level that something reaches
10
6.2
The highest point of success or power
6
4.9
The highest level of achievement in a career or field
5
9.9
The highest or best example of something that makes someone seem like a god
3
8.9
The highest point in the development of something
Antonyms
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
high-water + mark
The compound literally combines 'high' + 'water' + 'mark' so an English learner who knows the words can infer a point indicating the highest level reached. However, the computing sense is a metaphorical domain-specific extension (resource ceiling/threshold and triggering behaviour) beyond the literal image, so full technical meaning may not be predictable to a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
High-water mark comes from the line left by the highest water on a wall or riverbank after a flood. That visible high-water mark shows how high the water 'reached', so the phrase now means the 'highest point' or best moment of something.