Dictionary

hair's breadth en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A very small amount or distance.
   • hair's-breadth escapes [narrow escapes]
   • We won by a hair's breadth.
   • They came within a hair's breadth of contacting electrified water.
   • Measure Maddalena, and measure Minerva, and, from forehead to chin, you won't find a hair's breadth of difference between them. 1856, [William] Wilkie Collins, “The Yellow Mask”, in After Dark, volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., →OCLC, page 163:
   • He missed me by a hair's breadth when he ran past me yesterday.
   • "And then at last I see him, and behold, my chance is gone but by a hair's breadth even before I have it, for he is in the very jaws of death, whence no power of mine can draw him." 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

by a hair's breadth

Relateds

to a hair

Translations (9)

cy lled blewyn (very small amount or distance) · hu hajszálnyi (very small amount or distance) · he כְּחוּט הַשַֹּעֲרָה (very small amount or distance) · pl piczy włos (very small amount or distance) · de Haaresbreite (very small amount or distance) · grc ἐν χρῷ (very small amount or distance) · fi hitunen (very small amount or distance) · fi karvan verran (very small amount or distance) · pdt Hoabreet (very small amount or distance)