коломенская верста

• КОЛОМЕНСКАЯ ВЕРСТА; С <B>{{}}КОЛОМЕНСКУЮ ВЕРСТУ all coll, humor

[NP, sing only (1st var.; PrepP, adv or nonagreeing modif (2nd var.)]

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⇒ (of a person) very tall:

- tall as a beanpole;

- beanpole;

- (long,) tall drink of water.

     ♦ [Любим Карпыч:] Остался я после отца, видишь ты, мал-малёхонек, с коломенскую версту, лет двадцати несмышпёночек (Островский 2). [L.K.:] I was left when my father died, just a kid tall as a bean pole, a little fool of twenty (2a).

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← From a comparison of a very tall person with a "verst pole," i.e., a very high roadside pole marking a verst (an old Russian unit of length, about 1.06 km, used prior to the introduction of the metric system). Such poles were placed by order of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich on the road from Moscow to the village of Kolomenskoye, where the tsars resided in the summer.