hairpin

[hair-pin]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hairpin ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a slender U-shaped piece of wire, shell, etc., used by women to fasten up the hair or hold a headdress.

adjective

(of a road, curve in a road, etc.) sharply curved back, as in a U shape: a hairpin turn.

Origin of hairpin

First recorded in 1770–80; hair + pin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hairpin

clasp, fastener, pin, barrette

Examples from the Web for hairpin

Contemporary Examples of hairpin

Carrey sings: "You're a big, big man with a little bitty gland, so you need something bigger with a hairpin trigger."
"Hee-Haw": Jim Carrey Mocks Gun Lovers & Charlton Heston In Spoof
Anna Klassen
March 25, 2013
“I never unplug,” says Edith Zimmerman, editor of The Hairpin.
Seven Things to Do on National Day of Unplugging
Sam Schlinkert
March 1, 2013

Historical Examples of hairpin

"You're losing a hairpin on the left side of your head," was all I said.
The La Chance Mine Mystery
Susan Carleton Jones
A hairpin will not remove it; therefore let us call it immovable.
The Four Million
O. Henry
I believe I can pick it off little by little with a hairpin or a pair of scissors or something.
The Dude Wrangler
Caroline Lockhart
And you picked the lock with a hairpin, and came here all alone to flirt with my Jack!
Oh! Susannah!
Mark Ambient
She tried to pierce my eyes with that hairpin that you saw just now.
Original Short Stories, Volume 7 (of 13)
Guy de Maupassant

British Dictionary definitions for hairpin

hairpin

noun

a thin double-pronged pin used by women to fasten the hair

(modifier) (esp of a bend in a road) curving very sharply

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

Word Origin and History for hairpin

also hair-pin, 1788 (two words), from hair + pin (n.). A hairpin turn, etc., is from 1906. Hairpin (or clothespin) was American English slang for "person" c.1880-1910, especially in the expression "That's the kind of hairpin I am."