living high cotton
- idiom
- Archaic
:
vivir en la abundancia
- After years of struggle, they are finally living high cotton.
Examples
-
Since winning the lottery, they have been living high cotton, traveling and dining at fancy restaurants.
-
Back when the business was booming, the family was really living high cotton.
-
After landing the new job, they've been living high cotton and enjoying every moment.
-
He likes to remember the days when they were living high cotton before the market crashed.
-
They're living high cotton now!
-
After many years of saving, they are now living high cotton in their dream home.
-
He often reminisces about the time when they were living high cotton before the economic downturn.
Synonyms
8
5.6
A life of luxury with expensive things and many pleasures
5
8.2
Have a very comfortable life with lots of money
1
7.7
A way of living with expensive things, parties, and lots of spending
Living in comfort with plenty of money
Antonyms
How Comfortable
- Archaic
83
4.1
33
3.4
107
2.9
- Informal
56
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although 'live' and 'high' might suggest living in an elevated or luxurious way, the noun 'cotton' (a plant/fibre) does not transparently contribute to the meaning 'enjoying comfort or prosperity.' This is a regional idiom whose figurative source (prosperous cotton crops) is not predictable from the parts, so learners who only know the constituent words are unlikely to infer the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
Living high cotton may come from old Southern cotton fields where a crop that grew high meant a very good harvest. Seeing your cotton grow tall meant money and comfort, so to live high among the cotton came to mean 'to enjoy wealth or an easy life'.