to a hair
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English
Etymology
A reference to the very small diameter of a strand of hair: compare hair's breadth.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /tuː‿ə ˈhɛə/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /tu‿ə ˈhɛ(ə)ɹ/
- Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Prepositional phrase
- (idiomatic) To a high degree of precision; with the utmost exactness; to a nicety.
- Synonym: to the turn of a hair
- c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. (First Quarto), London: G Eld for R Bonian and H Walley, , published 1609, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘A Procession! A Procession!’”, in The Lost World , London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 298:
- 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.
Related terms
Translations
to a high degree of precision
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Further reading
- “to a hair, phrase” under “hair, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021. - “to a hair”, in Collins English Dictionary.
