hair follicle

noun Anatomy.

a small cavity in the epidermis and corium of the skin, from which a hair develops.

Origin of hair follicle

First recorded in 1830–40

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hair follicle

Historical Examples of hair follicle

From the hair-follicle also grows out a pair of sebaceous glands, which serve to keep the fully-formed hair moist.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia
Frank Evers Beddard
This depression takes the form of a sac and is called the hair-follicle, in which the roots of the hair are embedded.
A Practical Physiology
Albert F. Blaisdell
A boil is an inflammatory formation having its starting point in a sebaceous-gland, sweat-gland, or hair-follicle.
Essentials of Diseases of the Skin
Henry Weightman Stelwagon

British Dictionary definitions for hair follicle

hair follicle

noun

a narrow tubular cavity that contains the root of a hair, formed by an infolding of the epidermis and corium of the skin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

hair follicle in Medicine

hair follicle

A deep narrow pit that is formed by the tubular invagination of the epidermis and corium and encloses the root of the hair.