This paper addresses the problem of global adaptive stabilization by output-feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown growth rate and unknown output function. By constructing a suitable Lyapunov function, a new systematic design scheme is proposed to derive an adaptive output-feedback controller with appropriate design parameters based on a dynamic high-gain, under which the system states can be globally regulated to zero. Because the proposed method uses the adaptive technique rather than the time-varying one, it does not require a priori known information about either the growth rate or the upper and lower bounds of the derivative of the unknown output function. This makes the investigated system substantially different from the existing results and also highlights the main contributions of the paper. A practical example is presented to show the validity of the theoretical results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.