hair's breadth
3
5.6
- idiom
- /hɛrz brɛdθ/
- Informal
:
un pelo
- Starvation was possible; colonies could fail at any time; death was a hair's breadth away.
- just a hair's breadth
- only a hair's breadth
- comes within a hair's breadth
Examples
-
In the nick of time, even as the fearsome weapon was no more than a hair's breadth away, I sprang through a window, raced across the courtyard, scaled the wall, and dropped to the other side.
Fiction book (1995) -
The Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index fell to 50.6 in August, indicating that the manufacturing sector is just a hair's breadth away from contracting.
Blog text (10) -
You are a hair's breadth from suspension.
-
I will not budge one hair's breadth.
Blog text (17) -
That's just a hair's breadth.
Blog text (11) -
For 16 years I've been working within a hair's breadth of that door and for 16 years I've never opened it, not once.
-
For a moment, he grew stunningly sober as he realized what he'd been a hair's breadth from doing.
Fiction book (1991) -
There is a hair’s breadth between a friendly offer and a hostile takeover.
-
Kathryn sensed that her daughter was too raw, too flayed to be touched again, a hair's breadth from spiraling into a frenzy.
Fiction book (1998) -
The team won the championship by a hair's breadth after a thrilling final match.
Synonyms
30
4.7
A very small amount showing how close something was to happening
14
5.6
A very small distance that decides who wins a race
3
5.3
A very small amount or distance
1
6.3
A very small distance in a close call
1
6.9
A very small distance about as wide as a hair
1
7.6
Very close and almost not enough to win or pass
A small distance equal to the width of a finger, often used to show a very small amount
How Small
Surface Forms
Morphology
hair's + breadth
The phrase literally denotes the width of a hair combined with 'breadth' (distance), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it means a very small margin or distance. This comparison-by-hair is common cross-linguistically (e.g. 'by a hair', 'por un pelo'), reinforcing its compositional and immediately comprehensible nature at B1.
Etymology
The expression hair's breadth comes from the very thin width of a single hair: a hair's breadth is almost nothing. So, when something happens by a hair's breadth, it happens by a very small gap or 'an extremely small margin'.