a hair past a freckle
- idiom
- Informal
:
un instante después
- She said to meet her at a hair past a freckle, so I arrived just after noon.
Examples
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We got there a hair past a freckle and the show had already started.
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We will leave at a hair past a freckle.
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He joked that his appointment was set for a hair past a freckle, meaning it was not exact.
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It's only a hair past a freckle since we last met.
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He joked that the meeting was scheduled for a hair past a freckle, suggesting it would start very soon.
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When she said to call her at a hair past a freckle, I knew she meant to be ready shortly after we hung up.
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The train is expected to arrive at a hair past a freckle, so we should head to the station without delay.
Antonyms
How Soon
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase partly signals its meaning through transparent parts: 'hair' (=a very small amount) + 'past' (=after) point toward 'just a little after' some time. However, using 'freckle' as a tiny temporal/clock marker is a playful, nonstandard metaphor that a B1 learner who knows the words may not reliably map to a timeline without prior exposure, so the expression is only partially predictable.
Etymology
A hair past a freckle gives a tiny picture: a single hair lying just past a small dot, a freckle. That tiny gap shows only a little time, so the saying means 'a very short time after' or 'just after' a moment.