hair up

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

1. To grow (more) hair.
   1. USintransitiveTo grow its longer, thicker winter coat.

      Earmarks supplement brands for owner identification. When a cow critter gets all haired up in a thick winter coat, a brand gets harder to read than an earmark.

      1966, S. Omar Barker, chapter 3, in Little World Apart, page 38

      2 more examples

      That afternoon Flint hiked up the gulch and into the mountains, found his mules in good flesh and hairing up for cold weather, and paid the rancher for another month of pasturage.

      1999, Richard S. Wheeler, chapter 31, in Flint’s Honor, page 181

      And hanging beside the porcupine was what whould have been a nice a nice mountain lion pelt if it had been killed in the winter. Thing was mangy. You know how they get in the summer when they’re not haired-up.

      2012, C. M. Wendelboe, Death Where the Bad Rocks Live, page 202

   2. USintransitiveTo grow facial hair, especially after shaving; (rarely) to grow body hair.

      He ran a hand up the side of his face and winced disapprovingly at the prickle. They wouldn’t let him shave, and he haired up fast.

      1978, Stephen King, chapter 7, in The Stand, page 57

      1 more example

      And then she saw a small shadow—she supposed shame—pass across her father’s face when he looked at her nakedness. Because she was hairing up, she supposed.

      1998, William H. Gass, “Emma Enters a Sentence of Elizabeth Bishop’s”, in Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas

2. UStransitiveTo cause the fur of (an animal) to puff up or stand on end.

   a cat standing so tall and haired up it was the size of a bushel basket

   1965, John D. MacDonald, The House Guests, page 155

   1 more example

   “I’m foolish to be roaming around this time of night like an old cat, haired up by the wind. […]”

   1906, Holman Day, “When Dustin ‘Called On’”, in The Best Maine Stories, published 1986, page 214

3. UStransitiveTo soil or mess up (an area, etc.) with hair.

   FLOYD. […] And she’s hairing up the bathroom. You see this, strands as long as a witch. / HAROLD. My mother hairs up sinks, too.

   1989, Paul Zindel, “Act One, Scene Four”, in Amulets Against the Dragon Forces, page 32

   1 more example

   “Thank heaven, we’ve had a fire in [the parlor] today,” she thought, “and all I hope is That Cat hasn’t haired up the sofa. If Sarah Pringle got cat hairs on her dress […]”

   1936, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars, published 1970, page 54