hairsbreadth
[hairz-bredth, -bretth, -breth]
noun
a very small space or distance: We escaped an accident by a hairsbreadth.
adjective
extremely narrow or close.
Also hair's-breadth, hairbreadth.
Origin of hairsbreadth
First recorded in 1575–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for hairsbreadth
breadth, trace, whiff, whisper, hair, fraction, touch, tinge, hairsbreadth, bit, jot, hairbreadthExamples from the Web for hairsbreadth
Historical Examples of hairsbreadth
Not by a hairsbreadth has all that has passed in the interval lowered you in my eyes.
When We Dead AwakenHenrik Ibsen
I think, mamma, I never depart a hairsbreadth from your will.
The StormAleksandr Nicolaevich Ostrovsky
You heard my terms, and nothing that you can urge will move me a hairsbreadth from them.
The ImpostorHarold Bindloss
He was more than once within a hairsbreadth of death but at length he was brought by his master, Kakinathucca, to his home.
It was a fit ending to the first stage of Canadian history—a hopeless venture, a confession of weakness, a hairsbreadth escape.
A Historical Geography of the British ColoniesCharles Prestwood Lucas