hair Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss
    • he combed his hair
    • each hair consists of layers of dead keratinized cells
  2. noun a very small distance or space
    hair's-breadth; whisker; hairsbreadth.
    • they escaped by a hair's-breadth
    • they lost the election by a whisker
  3. noun filamentous hairlike growth on a plant
    tomentum; fuzz.
    • peach fuzz
  4. noun any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal
    pilus.
    • there is a hair in my soup
  5. noun cloth woven from horsehair or camelhair; used for upholstery or stiffening in garments
    haircloth.
  6. noun a filamentous projection or process on an organism

WordNet

Hair noun
Etymology
OE. her, heer, hær, AS. h&aemac;r; akin to OFries, her, D. & G. haar, OHG. & Icel. h&amac;r, Dan. haar, Sw. hår; cf. Lith. kasa.
Definitions
  1. The collection or mass of filaments growing from the skin of an animal, and forming a covering for a part of the head or for any part or the whole of the body.
  2. One the above-mentioned filaments, consisting, in invertebrate animals, of a long, tubular part which is free and flexible, and a bulbous root imbedded in the skin.
    Then read he me how Sampson lost his hairs. Chaucer.
    And draweth new delights with hoary hairs. Spenser.
  3. Hair (human or animal) used for various purposes; as, hair for stuffing cushions.
  4. (Zoöl.) A 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. An 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. A spring device used in a hair-trigger firearm.
  7. A haircloth. Obc. Chaucer.
  8. Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth. ✍ Hairs is often used adjectively or in combination; as, hairbrush or hair brush, hair dye, hair oil, hairpin, hair powder, a brush, a dye, etc., for the hair.

Webster 1913