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hair
[ hair ]
noun
- any of the numerous fine, usually cylindrical, keratinous filaments growing from the skin of humans and animals; a pilus.
- an aggregate of such filaments, as that covering the human head or forming the coat of most mammals.
- a similar fine, filamentous outgrowth from the body of insects, spiders, etc.
- Botany. a filamentous outgrowth of the epidermis.
- cloth made of hair from animals, as camel and alpaca.
- a very small amount, degree, measure, magnitude, etc.; a fraction, as of time or space:
He lost the race by a hair.
hair
/ hɛə /
noun
- any of the threadlike pigmented structures that grow from follicles beneath the skin of mammals and consist of layers of dead keratinized cells
- a growth of such structures, as on the human head or animal body, which helps prevent heat loss from the body
- botany any threadlike outgrowth from the epidermis, such as a root hair
- a fabric or material made from the hair of some animals
- ( as modifier )
a hair shirt
a hair carpet
- another word for hair's-breadth
to lose by a hair
- get in someone's hair informal.to annoy someone persistently
- hair of the dog or hair of the dog that bit onean alcoholic drink taken as an antidote to a hangover
- keep your hair on! informal.keep calm
- let one's hair downto behave without reserve
- not turn a hairto show no surprise, anger, fear, etc
- split hairsto make petty and unnecessary distinctions
hair
/ hâr /
- One of the fine strands that grow from the skin of mammals, usually providing insulation against the cold. Modified hairs sometimes serve as protective defenses, as in the quills of a porcupine or hedgehog, or as tactile organs, as in the whiskers (called vibrissae ) of many nocturnal mammals. Hair filaments are a modification of the epidermis of the skin and are composed primarily of keratin. Hair also contains melanin, which determines hair color.
- A slender growth resembling a mammalian hair, found on insects and other animals.
- A fine, threadlike growth from the epidermis of plants.
- See more at trichome
Derived Forms
- ˈhairˌlike, adjective
Other Words From
- hair·like adjective
- de·hair verb (used with object)
Word History and Origins
Origin of hair1
Word History and Origins
Origin of hair1
Idioms and Phrases
- get in someone's hair, Slang. to annoy or bother someone:
Their snobbishness gets in my hair.
- hair of the dog, Informal. a drink of liquor, supposed to relieve a hangover: Also hair of the dog that bit one.
Even a hair of the dog didn't help his aching head.
- let one's hair down, Informal.
- to relax; behave informally:
He finally let his hair down and actually cracked a joke.
- to speak candidly or frankly; remove or reduce restraints:
He let his hair down and told them about his anxieties.
- make one's hair stand on end, to strike or fill with horror; terrify:
The tales of the jungle made our hair stand on end.
- split hairs, to make unnecessarily fine or petty distinctions:
To argue about whether they arrived at two o'clock or at 2:01 is just splitting hairs.
- tear one's hair, to manifest extreme anxiety, grief, or anger: Also tear one's hair out.
He's tearing his hair over the way he was treated by them.
- to a hair, perfect to the smallest detail; exactly:
The reproduction matched the original to a hair.
- without turning a hair, without showing the least excitement or emotion. Also not turn a hair.
More idioms and phrases containing hair
- bad hair day
- by a hair
- by the short hairs
- fair-haired boy
- get gray hair from
- hang by a thread (hair)
- hide or hair
- in someone's hair
- let one's hair down
- make one's hair stand on end
- put lead in one's pencil (hair on one's chest)
- split hairs
- tear one's hair
- turn a hair
Example Sentences
Third, the combo of baobab and castor seed oils helps seal and smooth out dry hair and promote hair growth.
You may not see it but you are eating it and washing your hair with it.
His given name was Richard, but as soon as his hair came in, he was Red.
The state’s worst tier — the dreaded purple tier — would allow only hair salons and barber shops to continue operating indoors at full capacity.
So proper that his salt-and-pepper hair is never out of place.
Cassandra, whose hair has already begun to fall out from her court-mandated chemotherapy, could face a similar outcome.
But his fingers moved through her silky strands of hair, and then down her neck.
She used electrolysis to banish the prickly hair from her delicate face.
They dye their hair and alter their clothes, but not enough to attract attention from authorities.
Hangover Rx: “The old ‘hair of the dog’ is pretty much just a myth,” says White.
I pictured him as slim and young looking, smooth-faced, with golden curly hair, and big brown eyes.
He was tall and of familiar figure, and the firelight was playing in the tossed curls of his short, fair hair.
His hair was darker—almost brown save at the temples, where age had faded it to an ashen colour.
He frowned, and bent his head, and his long hair fell over his face, while the poor Stuttgardter sat there like a beaten hound.
He stood before the glass hung above the wash bench and 369 smoothed his hair.
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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.
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