hairsbreadth

From hair +‎ -s- +‎ breadth.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛəɹzbɹɛdθ/
• Hyphenation: hairs‧breadth

hairsbreadth (plural hairsbreadths)

1. Alternative form of hair's breadth: a very short distance or a very small amount (as is the width of a hair).
   • 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 IV, scene ii], page 54, column 1:

     [...] I ſee you are obſequious in your loue, and I profeſſe requitall to a haires bredth, [...]

   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “The Word of a Gentleman”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 265:

     [I]t was characteristic of this man, as it is of all men similarly marked, that whatever he did, he overdid, though it were sometimes by only a hair's-breadth [...]

   • 1919, John Buchan, Mr. Standfast:

     We've missed our shot by a hairsbreadth and that's the same as missing by miles.

   • 2010 March, Neil McDonald, Quadrant, Quadrant Magazine Limited, volume LIV, number 3 (number 464 overall), page 100:

     In Avatar the spectacular rides to the rescue and hairsbreadth escapes have the whole film behind them and because of that are dramatically and emotionally satisfying.

• hairbreadths