Meanings
- idiomaticTo a high degree of precision; with the utmost exactness; to a nicety.
Pand[arus]. Youle remember your brothers excuſe? / Par[is]. To a hayre.
c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]1 more example
As to our own representative, the well-known athlete and international Rugby football player, E. D. Malone, he looks trained to a hair, and as he surveyed the crowd a smile of good-humored contentment pervaded his honest but homely face.
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘A Procession! A Procession!’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 298Synonyms: to the turn of a hair
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseTo a high degree of precision; with the utmost exactness; to a nicety.
Origin
A reference to the very small diameter of a strand of hair: compare hair's breadth.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek εἰς ὄνῠχᾰ
- εἰς ὄνῠχᾰ (eis ónŭkhă)to a high degree of precision
Finnish pilkulleen
- pilkulleento a high degree of precision
French à un cheveux
- à un cheveuxto a high degree of precision
German haarklein
- haarkleinto a high degree of precision
Italian spaccare il capello
- spaccare il capelloto a high degree of precision
Latin ad unguem, in unguem
- ad unguemto a high degree of precision
- in unguemto a high degree of precision
Polish dokładnie, szczegółowo
- dokładnieto a high degree of precision
- szczegółowoto a high degree of precision
Welsh at y blewyn, i'r blewyn
- at y blewynto a high degree of precision
- i'r blewynto a high degree of precision
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with to a hair
Cite this entry
to a hair. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20a%20hair
“to a hair.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20a%20hair. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “to a hair,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20a%20hair.
Source: to a hair on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.