hairsbreadth
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hairsbreadth
First recorded in 1575–85
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.
“This is why last year was much more stressful in many ways. We did come within a hairsbreadth of triaging patients last year.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2022
These factors could already be steering the world ever closer to a new Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world came within a hairsbreadth of nuclear incineration.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2018
Sagan won the race by a hairsbreadth with some deft sprinting at the finish line.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2018
Most people might be in a bit of a flap on hairsbreadth avoidance of death.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 15, 2017
It cut me with such keen regret; it fired me with such hot rage—that I was within a hairsbreadth of tearing the rest of it up unread, and trampling it under my feet.
From Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
