В-45

КОЛОМЕНСКАЯ ВЕРСТА С (B) КОЛОМЕН-СКУЮ ВЕРСТУ all coll, humor NP, sing only (1st van) PrepP, adv or nonagreeing modif (2nd var. )) (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 несмышлёно-чек (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).

From a comparison of a very tall person with a uverst 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 Ko-lomenskoye, where the tsars resided in the summer.