a hair's breadth

hair's breadth

A very small amount or short length. After wandering around the forest for an hour thinking we were lost, it turned out that we were only a hair's breadth away from our campsite. The seal is air-tight—there's not a hair's breadth between the door and the frame.
See also: breadth

a hair's breadth

1. You use a hair's breadth to talk about the smallest possible amount or degree of something. The town suffered heavy bombing, coming within a hair's breadth of being destroyed altogether. He missed the two-minute barrier by a hair's breadth, finishing in 2.00.04 and setting a new British record. The situation was a hair's breadth away from being comical.
2. You use a hair's breadth to talk about the smallest possible distance. A stone flew past him, missing him by a hair's breadth. His head was a hair's breadth away from the car roof.
See also: breadth

a hair's breadth

a very small amount or margin.
See also: breadth

a ˈhair’s breadth

a very small distance or amount: He escaped death by a hair’s breadth. If the other car had been going any faster, he would certainly have been killed. ♢ She was within a hair’s breadth of winning.
Breadth means width.
See also: breadth
References in classic literature ?
As if that money could add a hair's breadth to happiness or peace of mind.
View in context
Isis Brantley is a hair's breadth away from the end of her decades-long battle with the state to practice and teach African hair braiding in Texas, after a measure to deregulate the industry passed the Texas Senate on Wednesday and will head to Gov.
Lawmakers a Hair's Breadth Away From Cutting Braiding Laws
You have each escaped going to prison by a hair's breadth.
Freedombyawhisker
Meyer's description of the lovers' emotions is palpable, and readers will be drawn into the couple's spiraling dance, feeling the intense longing that comes from being a hair's breadth away from the thing you want most in the world.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight
Jeffrey Kimble, mounted a pair of extraordinarily reflective mirrors half a hair's breadth apart in a vacuum chamber.
Trapped atom shoots steady light beam
Chair of the bench Melvin Marks said: 'The management of Spearmint Rhino should be fully aware that they came within a hair's breadth of losing their licence.
Spearmint club nearly comes unstuck
There's a hair's breadth between those who get enjoyment from looking at these pictures and those who make them.
SUSAN: Woolly
Motorists barrelling along London's Westway, the iconic elevated motorway that snakes westward out of the metropolis, are probably familiar with the equally iconic Paddington Maintenance Depot, a Heroic Modernist confection of nautical curves and streamlining that docks within a hair's breadth of whizzing streams of cars.
Fashion victor: Nestling beside London's Westway, a former motorway maintenance building has been stylishly recast as a fashion company headquarters
After hearing about Mason's background, he said he was prepared to suspend the prison term for two years, telling him: "You came within a hair's breadth of going down".
Spared prison for knife attack
Idioms browser ?
Full browser ?