hair's-breadth

2 definitions found

hair's-breadth - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Hairbreadth \Hair"breadth`\ (-br[e^]dth), Hair's breadth
  \Hair's" breadth`\ (h[^a]rz"-).
     The diameter or breadth of a hair; a very small distance;
     sometimes, definitely, the forty-eighth part of an inch.
     [Also spelled hairsbreadth.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Every one could sling stones at an hairbreadth and not
           miss.                                    --Judg. xx.
                                                    16.
     [1913 Webster]

hair's-breadth - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  hair's-breadth
      n 1: a very small distance or space; "they escaped by a
           hair's-breadth"; "they lost the election by a whisker"
           [syn: hair's-breadth, hairsbreadth, hair, whisker]