Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The breadth of a hair, taken as the type of indefinitely minute space or line, literal or figurative. See hairbreadth.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a very small distance or space
Examples
“Halfway through, the wind hauled to the north'ard of northwest, the glass dropped to 28.88, and he turned and ran before a gale of cyclonic fury, missing, by a hair's-breadth, piling up the Mary Rogers on the black-toothed rocks.”
“Delicate to a hair's-breadth, hand and eye true and steady as steel.”
“The words were either false when spoken or else so misleading as to evade falsehood by a hair's-breadth equivocation.”
The Huffington Post: David Bromwich: The CIA, the Libyan Rebellion, and the President
“As Chosen Hero Resists Her Destiny plots go, this one is pretty straightforward, leaving plenty of room for harrowing dangers, hair's-breadth escapes, and daring rescues -- and some very creepy set-pieces involving a Burtonesque forest laid waste by the Jabberwock, a moat filled with the severed heads of the Red Queen's victims, and a confrontation between chess pieces and playing cards, among others.”
“Both of them won by a hair's-breadth and it seems to have scared the stuffing out of them.”
“The youthful, handsome and wealthy but secretly unhealthy American had attained the presidency by the hair's-breadth margin of a tenth of 1% of the popular vote but raised questions about his judgment and steadiness with his shaky handling of the Bay of Pigs debacle in April 1961.”
“Genevieve had noticed, with a slight touch of amusement, the curious way in which Joe snuggled his body in against Ponta's in the clinches; but she had not realized why, until, in one such clinch, before the snuggling in could be effected, Ponta's fist whipped straight up in the air from under, and missed Joe's chin by a hair's-breadth.”
“The hours swept along, but Imber did not vary his posture, did not by a hair's-breadth move a muscle; and Dickensen remembered the man who once sat upright on a sled in the main street where men passed to and fro.”
“If you're looking for old-style adventure with hair's-breadth escapes, intrigue, swordplay, horsemanship, and even a bit romance in the latter two stories, you can't go wrong here.”
“The dogs required their daily ration, and they got it -- measured out to a hair's-breadth.”
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