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.

RELATED WORDS

clasp, fastener, pin, barrette

Nearby words

Origin of hairpin

First recorded in 1770–80; hair + pin

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

Examples from the Web for 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|DAILY BEAST
“I never unplug,” says Edith Zimmerman, editor of The Hairpin.
Seven Things to Do on National Day of Unplugging|Sam Schlinkert|March 1, 2013|DAILY BEAST
He noticed it, saw a hairpin and two nickles and a card or two.
Stubble|George Looms
He kept his accounts rigorously, entering even the cost of repairing a hairpin for a ward.
Washington and his Comrades in Arms|George Wrong

The clicking ceased with sudden abruptness, and she prodded the carriage of the machine viciously with a hairpin.
Masters of the Wheat-Lands|Harold Bindloss
From "hairpin" to "hairpin" we went, these curves so sharp that at first it seemed impossible to make them without backing.
Europe from a Motor Car|Russell Richardson
Then—it was the least significant of trivialities—she plucked a hairpin from her hair, and began to button her glove.
The Man Who Was Good|Leonard Merrick

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

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."