hair — OET · Shobdo

hair

noun

1 thick black curly hair:

head of hair, shock of hair, mop of hair, mane;

locks, tresses, curls;

wig, toupee, hairpiece, switch;

informal rug, thatch;

British, informal barnet;

rare postiche.

2 your hair looks lovely:

hairstyle, haircut, cut, style, coiffure;

informal hairdo, do, coif.

3 muscular dogs with wide heads and short, blue-grey hair:

fur, wool;

coat, fleece, pelt, hide, skin;

mane;

archaic fell.

□ a hair's breadth

the American bison was saved from extinction by a hair's breadth:

the narrowest of margins, a narrow margin, the skin of one's teeth, a split second, a fraction, a nose;

informal a whisker.

▷antonyms a wide margin.

□ get in someone's hair

informal

she got in my hair until I couldn't bear it another day:

annoy, irritate, gall, irk, pique, needle, nettle, bother, vex, provoke, displease, offend, affront, upset, anger, exasperate, disgruntle, ruffle, put someone's back up, get on someone's nerves, make someone's hackles rise, raise someone's hackles;

informal peeve, aggravate, miff, get, get to, bug, wind up, get under someone's skin, hack off, get someone's goat, ruffle someone's feathers, rub up the wrong way, get across someone;

British, informal nark, get up someone's nose, get on someone's wick, give someone the hump;

North American, informal tick off, rankle, ride, gravel;

vulgar slang piss off;

British, vulgar slang get on someone's tits;

rare exacerbate, hump, rasp.

▷antonyms appease.

□ let one's hair down

informal

visitors young and old let their hair down and enjoyed the entertainment:

have a good time, have a great time, enjoy oneself, have fun, make merry, have the time of one's life, let oneself go, have a fling;

informal have a ball, whoop it up, make whoopee, paint the town red, live it up, have a whale of a time, let it all hang out;

British, informal push the boat out, have a rave-up;

North American, informal hang loose, chill out;

South African jol.

□ make someone's hair stand on end

the dossier on him would make your hair stand on end:

horrify, shock, appal, scandalize, dismay, stun;

make someone's blood run cold, freeze someone's blood;

informal make someone's hair curl;

British, informal put the wind up someone.

▷antonyms reassure.

□ not turn a hair

if I was told I'd been sacked, I wouldn't turn a hair:

remain calm, keep calm, keep cool, remain composed, remain unruffled, appear unaffected, maintain one's equilibrium, keep control of oneself, not show emotion, not lose one's head, bite one's lip, keep a stiff upper lip;

informal keep one's cool, not bat an eyelid;

British, informal keep one's hair on.

▷antonyms panic.

□ split hairs

a pompous professor who uses language to equivocate and split hairs:

quibble, raise trivial objections, find fault, cavil, carp, niggle, argue over nothing;

informal nitpick;

archaic pettifog.

word links	hair
capillaceous relating to hair tricho- related prefix, as in trichology trichophobia fear of hair

hair Oxford Dictionary of English