Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Extremely close.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The diameter or breadth of a hair; an infinitesimal space or distance. Among the Jews a hairbreadth was reckoned the 48th part of an inch; in Burma it is of an inch. Now generally written hair's-breadth.
  • Of the breadth of a hair; extremely narrow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the breadth of a hair; very narrow.
  • The diameter or breadth of a hair; a very small distance; sometimes, definitely, the forty-eighth part of an inch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the width of a hair, a very short distance or a very small amount

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From hair + breadth.

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