Search the Dictionary

The diameter or breadth of a hair; a very small distance; sometimes, definitely, the forty-eighth part of an inch. Every one could sling stones at an hairbreadth and not miss. Judg. xx. 16

A brush for cleansing and smoothing the hair.

Stuff or cloth made wholly or in part of hair.

One who dresses or cuts hair; a barber.

Having hair. "A beast haired like a bear." Purchas.

Hairy. [Obc.] His hairen shirt and his ascetic diet. J. Taylor.

The state of abounding, or being covered, with hair. Johnson.

Destitute of hair. Shak.

A pin, usually forked, or of bent wire, for fastening the hair in place, -- used by women.

excessively nice or needless distinctions in reasoning; one who quibbles. "The caviling hairsplitter." De Quincey.

The act or practice of making trivial distinctions. The ancient hairsplitting technicalities of special pleading. Charles Sumner.

The slender recoil spring which regulates the motion of the balance in a timepiece.

A butterfly of the genus Thecla; as, the green hairstreak (T. rubi).

Any species of marine fishes of the genus Trichiurus; esp., T. lepterus of Europe and America. They are long and like a band, with a slender, pointed tail. Called also bladefish.

A nematoid worm of the genus Gordius, resembling a hair. See Gordius.

Bearing or covered with hair; made of or resembling hair; rough with hair; rough with hair; rough with hair; hirsute. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge. Milton.

A female paramour; a mistress, concubine, or harlot. -- He*tæ"ric, He*tai"ric (#), a.

A supposed primitive state of society, in which all the women of a tribe were held in common. H. Spencer. -- Het`a*ris"tic, a.

= Air hole, above.

A hair of a horse, especially one from the mane or tail; the hairs of the mane or tail taken collectively; a fabric or tuft made of such hairs. Horsehair worm (Zoöl.), the hair worm or gordius.