hairy
Americanadjective
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hairier,
comparative
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hairiest
superlative
adjective
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having or covered with hair
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slang
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difficult or problematic
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scaring, dangerous, or exciting
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of hairy
First recorded in 1250–1300, hairy is from the Middle English word heeri. See hair, -y 1
Explanation
Hairy things are furry or fuzzy — covered with hair. If your hairy dog lies on your bed, your bed may end up hairy as well. If your dad has a bushy beard, he has a hairy face, and while some kinds of caterpillars are sleek and smooth, others are hairy. Informally, you can also use hairy to mean "scary." The biggest roller coaster at an amusement park will probably have a few hairy loops and turns. This slang meaning has evolved from its original use as "difficult," dating back to the 1840s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Go!" shouted Ivan Deforge, and without hesitation his 300-kilo hairy sidekicks Karym and Ural leapt through a ring of fire under the dome of the Great Moscow Circus.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
If you happen to be swimming in the Salish Sea at night and imagine tiny hairy legs creeping up your body, there is now at least one unsettling reason that image feels plausible.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026
There are those about unusual obsessions, like the Ford executive who kept score of colleagues’ verbal flubs, and odd jobs, like the hairy Utah men benefiting from a booming market for Jesus models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
“It’s so funny because it’s like these people have maybe never seen a woman in a bathing suit with hairy legs,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Her hairy front legs pulled her round abdomen out of the shadows.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
Bumblebees have much hairier bodies than honeybees, making it easier for dust and airborne particles containing heavy metals to cling to them before being carried back to the nest with pollen.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
Things got even hairier when Usha’s execrable husband, Vice President J.D.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2025
Criticism has flooded in, including that engineering mammoth-like creatures is a big stretch from making mice hairier, as well as being unethical, and that the whole project is a publicity stunt.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2025
But, like in the real world, when the human stakes rise to a level where movie ethics are a smaller concern because actual life is on the line, things get hairier.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
To them, the hairier the situation became, the more exciting it was.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
“It was the hairiest thing we’ve ever done because it was so chaotic and impossible to plan. And when I pulled those seconds out, the sequence flew. It was brutal to have to do it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
She said I was the hairiest thing she had ever seen.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2021
A lumbering, chunky beast clad in a sheep-like coat of hair, it is the hairiest and fattiest of pigs.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 27, 2019
“This will be — probably — your hairiest caucus of all time,” one of the show’s anchors cracked wise to the cartoonist.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2016
Malik has the hairiest toes, and for the last few weeks, his right big toenail has been all black and blue and yellow because he jammed it doing a backflip.
From "A High Five for Glenn Burke" by Phil Bildner
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