hair

plural hairs

1. countablesingularusuallyA pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.

   And draweth new delights with hoary hairs.

   1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iune. Ægloga Sexta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC

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   Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 28, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 135

2. singularuncountableusuallyThe collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for any part or the whole body.
3. singularuncountableusuallySpecifically, the collection of hairs on the top and sides of the human head, growing from the scalp.

   In the western world, women usually have long hair while men usually have short hair.

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   Her abundant hair, of a dark and glossy brown, was neatly plaited and coiled above an ivory column that rose straight from a pair of gently sloping shoulders, clearly outlined beneath the light muslin frock that covered them.

   1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: thatch, mop, locks

4. countablesingularusuallybiologyA slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.
5. countablesingularusuallybiologyA cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.

   Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).

6. countablesingularusuallyAny slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

   (uncountable, by extension) The collection or mass of such outgrowths, filaments, or fibers growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

7. countablesingularusuallyengineeringA locking spring or other safety device in the lock of a rifle, etc., capable of being released by a slight pressure on a hair-trigger.
8. countablesingularusuallyAny very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.

   I won by a hair.

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   Just a little louder please—turn that knob a hair to the right.

   Now listen to what you've got to do, and this time if you deviate a single hair or try any of your monkey tricks it's the deep end you'll go off at.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

9. singularslanguncountableusuallyComplexity; difficulty; the quality of being hairy.

   January 2014, Barack Obama, quoted in "Going the Distance" by David Remnick, in The New Yorker Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy.

present singular third person hairs · participle present hairing · participle past haired · past haired

1. singulartransitiveusuallyTo remove the hair from.

   I took 25 hides out of the Lime with Stephens help I haired them and fleshed them

   1971, Reuben King, Virginia S. Wood, Ralph V. Wood, The Reuben King Journal, 1800-1806, page 49

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   Now know ye, that in compliance with the said proviso, we the said John Cant and John Millar do hereby declare that our said invention of a new method of tanning leather is described in the manner following : that our method of preparing hides and skins by liming, hairing, fleshing, and baiting, is the same as that in use by the most experienced tanners; that is to say: All leather that is to be dressed or curried, we use the operation of what tanners call baiting, for this reason; that the leather when curried should carry a sufficient quantity of oil, and dry a good colour.

   1808, The Repertory of Patent Inventions, page 90

   By his method raw hides, after hairing and baiting, are converted into leather in less than thirty hours.

   1825, American Mechanics' Magazine - Volume 2, page 71

2. intransitivesingularusuallyTo grow hair (where there was a bald spot).

   He has haired up and healed over.

   1863, Yankee-notions - Volume 12, page 312

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   It has haired over nicely. There are no bad results from it in any way whatever that I can detect.

   1887, National Stockman and Farmer - Volume 11, page 7

   The bald patch on his hip was hairing over and he no longer limped.

   1992, Hugh Ruppersburg, Georgia Voices: Fiction, page 492

3. singulartransitiveusuallyTo cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair

   So they did three different sculptures and then ran the masks and painted them, haired them, and sent them out to us.

   2014, Lee Karr, Greg Nicotero, The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead

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   THE following classes of fiber are employed for hairing dolls : human hair, mohair, cross-bred wool, horsehair, hog-bristle, unspun cotton. Human hair is only used for hairing dolls of an extremely expensive class.

   1937, Dyestuffs - Volume 35, Issue 1, page 1

   The winter had haired them like llamas, the sleet had worked no hardship, as a horse paws to the grass, and any concern for the outside saddle stock was needless.

   2017, Andy Adams, Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings

4. singularusuallyTo string the bow for a violin.

   The bow is now haired, and all that remains to make it ready for use is to rosin it.

   1896, Henry Saint-George, The Bow, Its History, Manufacture & Use, page 96

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   The tools used for hairing a bow by various reparimen can be unlimited in their selection. A bowmaker has a different attitude toward hairing than a repairman and this I believe reflects the type of the finished job that is done.

   1969, John Alfred Bolander, Violin bow making, page 105

   To hair a bow, a hank of horse hair (A) is selected and combed so that all hairs are parallel to each other.

   2015, Michael J. Pagliaro, The String Instrument Owner's Handbook, page 108

plural Hairs

1. A surname.