waist-deep
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of waist-deep
First recorded in 1755–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A woman who was taking a toilet break while on a road trip in the Australian outback ended up getting stuck waist-deep in a pit latrine after it collapsed.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
She ran downstairs to find her grandson waist-deep in the foul mix, holding the television above his head.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2025
At dusk, worshippers stood waist-deep in the river's brown waters to offer prayers to the sun god Surya as the setting orb sank into the haze blanketing New Delhi's skyline, marking the annual Chhath festival.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2025
In the last two decades, he has been robbed on public transit, waded through the street in waist-deep floods and spent endless hours stuck in traffic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2024
The wall of the lagoon formed a shallow slope, and where he’d fallen in, it had been no more than waist-deep.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
