Definition of "towering"

So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

She is a towering girl with a husky baritone voice and a friendly and flamboyant style.

1964, Look, volume 28, page 338

And it was not until Ryan Shawcross's towering header was cleared off the line by Danny Murphy on the stroke of half-time that Stoke started to crank up the pressure and suggest they were capable of getting back into the match.

2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0-2 Fulham”, in BBC

Gaiety seldom fails to give some pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or despair.

1829, John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors

But I am an old hawk at the sport; and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as brought my bird from the aerial towerings, pop down at my foot like Corporal Trim's hat.

1787, Robert Burns, letter to a friend