against the hair

against the hair

1. (obsolete) In a rough and disagreeable manner; against the grain.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     He is the wiser man, master doctor: he is a curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies; if you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions.

   • 1644, David Hume, The History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus‎, Edinburgh, Part II, p. 248:

     But his Army loved him not; all went unwillingly with him, and against the hair.

   • 1663, [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 74:

     And yet hee’l smile, but then beware,
     For sure it is against the hair;