split hairs

Cultural  

1. To argue about an inconsequential and trivial aspect of an issue: “When you are accused of being forty-five minutes late for an appointment, you are splitting hairs to say that you were really only forty minutes late.”

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split hairs Idioms  

1. Make trivial distinctions, quibble, as in Let's not split hairs about whose turn it is; I'll close up today and you do it tomorrow. This metaphoric idiom transfers dividing so fine an object as a single hair to other petty divisions. [Second half of 1600s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

split hairs

Given the bottlenecks, data centers might care more about speed than split hairs about cost.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025

If you give scientists enough caffeine or other kinds of beverages, you can split hairs about, was that the perfect metaphor?

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2022

A clear-eyed overview of the nuclear industry and the Japanese disaster doesn’t split hairs over the risk: It can happen here.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2022

Sometimes decisions also seem to split hairs: The Facebook page for Jones’ Infowars was taken down in August 2018, long before Facebook took broader steps to remove numerous other pages connected to Jones and Infowars.

From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2019

He split hairs for three-quarters of an hour on the grammatical accuracy of his text.

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee