hair 
II. ((. Made of or stuffed with hair: as. iinir 
jewelry ; a hair mattress. [The earlier adjec- 
tive, luiiren, is now obsolete.] Hair broom, a 
broom made of bristles technically called hair. Hair 
glove, a glove made of rough haircloth for rubbing the 
akin while bathing. Hair line, a line made of hair; 
now, specifically, a fishing-line of horsehair. Lines made 
of hair, especially clothes-lines, were common in the mid- 
dle ages and down to the seventeenth century. Hair 
pencil, a fine brush or pencil made of hair, used in 
painting, etc. Hair pencils are made of very fine hail 1 , 
as of the camel, squirrel, marten, badger, polecat, etc., 
mounted in a quill when of small size. Hair shirt, a 
shirt made of haircloth, used especially for penance. See 
haircloth. 
When no prelate's lawn with hair-shirtlineA 
Is half so incoherent as my mind. 
Pope, Imlt. of Horace, I. L 165. 
hair 1 (liar), v. i. [< hair 1 , .] To produce or 
grow hair. [Colloq.] To hair up, to support a 
growth of polyps, algals, etc., as oysters. 
hair 2 t, <' t. Another spelling of hare 2 . 
hairbell (har'bel). . An erroneous spelling 
of harebell. [This spelling, taken as hairi + belli, has 
been preferred by Lindley, Prior, and others, as being de- 
scriptive of the filiform stalk and bell-shaped flowers of 
the plant.] 
hair-bird (har'berd), . Same as chip-bird. 
[U. S.] 
hair-bracket (har'brak/et), n. In ship-build- 
ing, a molding which in many vessels comes 
in at the back of the figurehead or runs aft 
from it. 
The middle and small rails had their lower ends for- 
ward resting on the hair bracket (or continuation of the 
curve of the cheek), and their after ends simply butted 
against the side. Thearle, Naval Arch., 232. 
hairbrained (har 'brand), a. An erroneous 
spelling of harebrained. 
hairbranch-tree (har'branch-tre), i. A South 
African shrub, Triehocladus crinitus, of the order 
Hamamelidie. The staminate flowers have long, linear- 
spatulate petals with revolute margins, whence perhaps 
the name. See Triehocladus. 
hairbreadth (har'bredth), n. and a. I. n. 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 
3 J of an inch. Now generally written hair's-breadth. 
You jest ; but proud Cynisca makes me sad ; 
Nay ; I'm within a hairbreadth raving mad. 
Fawket, tr. of Idylls of Theocritus, xiv. 
He answered his description to a hair-breadth in every- 
thing. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, i. 10. 
II. a. Of the breadth of a hair; extremely 
narrow. 
Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach ; 
Of being taken by the insolent foe 
And sold to slavery. Shak., Othello, 1. 3. 
A love story, filled as usual with hair-breadth escapes, 
jealous quarrels, and questions of honor, runs through 
nearly every one of these dramas. 
Tieknor, Span. Lit., II. 232. 
hair-brush (har'brush), n. A brush for dress- 
ing and smoothing the hair. 
hair-bulb (har'bulb), n. The root of a hair 
when bulbous, as it usually is. 
haircap-moss (har ' kap-m&s), n. Moss of the 
genus Polytrichum, especially /'. juniperinum, 
having the calyptra covered with fine hairs. It 
is said to have diuretic properties. 
hair-cell (har'sel), . 1. See cell. 2. Thetri- 
chocyst of an iufusorian, corresponding to the 
thread-cell or nematocyst of a coalenterate. 
hair-clam (har'klam), . An ark-shell; one of 
the various species of Arcidte. Also called hair- 
quag and blood-quag. 
haircloth (har'kl&th), n. Stuff or cloth made 
wholly or partly of hair, especially of the hair 
of the horse or of the camel. The smooth glossy 
haircloth formerly much used for covering chairs, sofas, 
etc., has the weft of the long hairs of horses' tails and the 
warp usually of linen yarn. Coarser haircloth is made 
for various purposes (in some countries for garments) of 
the shorter hairs of the horse and of various other animals, 
twisted together and used for both warp and weft. The 
sackcloth of the Bible was of this character. Shirts of 
such haircloth, rough and prickly, were formerly often 
worn next the skin by ascetics and penitents. See hairi, 
n., 5, 6. 
hair-compasses (har'kum"pas-ez), n. pi. See 
eomptut. 
haircup-flower (har'kup-flou"er), n. In Aus- 
tralia, a myrtaceous plant, Calythrix tetragona, 
the calyx of which is provided with 10 awl- 
shaped, elongated bristles. 
hair-dividers (har'di-vi'derz), n.pl. Hair-com- 
passes. See compass. 
hair-dress (har'dres), n. A head-dress; the 
manner of arranging the hair. [Rare.] 
The Angakut of Cumberland Sound wear at certain parts 
the hairdress used by southern tribes. 
Amer. Antiquarian, X. 41. 
hair-dresser (har'dres"er), . One who dresses 
or cuts hair ; a barber. 
2683 
hair-dye (har'di), n. A preparation for alter- 
ing the color of the hair. 
haired (hard), p. <i. [< ME. liered; < hairl + 
-i-il-.~\ Having hair: commonly used in com- 
position: as, long-haired, ydlovt-li<iired, dark- 
haired, etc. 
He was . . . couert as a capull ; all the corse ouer, 
ffro the bed to the hele, herit full thicke. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 6631. 
hair-eel (liar'el), H. Same as hairieorni. 
hairent (har' en), a. [< ME. heeren, < AS. h&r- 
en (= MHG. hwren, G. haren), of hair, < hair, 
hair, + -en 2 .] Hairy; made of hair. 
It must needs be to his sublimed and clarified spirit 
more punitive and afflictive than his hairen shirt and his 
ascetic diet was to his body. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1825), I. 84. 
haireve, . See hairif. 
hair-feather (har'feTH"er), . See feather. 
hair-follicle (har'fol"i-kl), n. A tubular de- 
pression of the skin from the bottom of which a 
hair grows. It consists of a dermic and an epidermic 
coat. The latter is next to the root of the hair, to which 
it commonly adheres when the hair Is plucked, and may 
easily be seen with the naked eye. It is directly con- 
tinuous both with the cuticular surface of the skin and 
with the root of the hair itself. The dermic coat is 
similarly continuous with the corium or true skin, but 
distinct from the hair, and may often be separated into 
three recognizable layers : a basement membrane next to 
the cuticular layer of the follicle, a middle muscular or 
at least contractile layer, and a third layer of connective 
tissue. Associated with the follicles are the nutrient 
blood-vessels, nerves, sebaceous glands, and special mus- 
cles. A hair-follicle is also called a root-sheath, a name 
sometimes restricted to its epidermic layer. See cut 
under hairl. 
hair-gland (har'gland), n. 1 . One of the minute 
sebaceous glands of the root of a hair, whose 
secretion serves to keep it glossy. See cut 
under hair. 2. In bot., a viscid, secreting, or 
odoriferous gland at the tip of a hair. In 
Droseracea, for example, the hair-glands are 
viscid or watery, whence the name sun-dew, 
from their resemblance to drops of dew. 
hair-grass (har'gras), n. One of several species 
of grass bearing small flowers on slender, hair- 
like branches, especially Deschampsia (Aim) 
caspitosa, D. (A.) flexuosa, and Agrostis scabra. 
hairif (har'if), . [Also written harif, hariff, 
heiriff, haireve, and haritch, and variously ae- 
eom. hairup, hairough, etc., prop, liayrif, < 
ME. ttayryf, harife, hariffe, etc., < AS. hegerife, 
appar. < liege, a hedge (E. hay%, q. v.), + *rif 
(Ettmuller not verified) = Icel. rifr, abun- 
dant, rife : see rife.~\ The common goose-grass 
or bedstraw, Galimn Aparine, a plant belonging 
to the natural order Rubiaceie, and closely re- 
lated to the madder. See Galimn, 2, and goose- 
grass. 
tiairiff, . See hairif. 
hairiness (har'i-nes), n. The state of being 
hairy ; the state of abounding in hair or being 
covered with it. 
A character which, like hairiness, exists throughout the 
whole of the mammalia. 
A. R. Wallace, Nat. Select., p. 348. 
hair-knob (har'nob), . The bulbous lower 
end of the root of a hair. 
hair-lace (har'las), n. [Early mod. E. also 
herelace.] A fillet for tying up the hair of the 
head. 
Let me be whipt to death with ladies' hair-laces. 
Middleton, Family of Love, L 2. 
A woman's hair-lace or fillet. Harvey. 
hairless (har'les), a. [< hair 1 + -less.} Desti- 
tute of hair ; bald : as, hairless scalps. 
hair-lichen (har'li'ken), n. In med., lichen 
pilaris. a variety of lichenous rash, in which the 
small tubercles are limited to the roots of the 
hairs of the skin, and scale off after ten days. 
hair-line (har'lin), n. 1. A very slender line 
made in writing or drawing ; a hair-stroke. 2. 
In printing, a very thin line on a type ; also, a 
style of type consisting entirely of thin lines. 
hairlip (har'lip), n. ,An erroneous spelling of 
harelip. 
hair-mealt, [ME. hermele; < hair* + meal?, 
a portion.] The thickness of a hair; a hair's- 
breadth. 
Whan the shadwe of the pyn entreth anything within 
the cercle of thi plate an her mele. 
Chaucer, Astrolabe, ii. 38. 
hair-needlet (har'ne"dl), n. [ME. not found; 
AS. *h<B>'nwdl, " calamistrum " (Lye), < hcer, 
hair, + naidl, needle.] A hair-pin. 
hair-net (har'net), n. A net worn by women to 
confine the hair. Compare caul 1 , 1 (a), crespine. 
hair-Oil (har'oil), H. Oil for dressing the hair, 
generally perfumed. 
hairtail 
hair-picker (har'pik"er), n. A machine for 
cleaning hair and preparing it for use, as in 
upholstery. 
hair-pin (har'pin), w. A pin vised to support 
braids or plaits of hair, or to maintain the head- 
dress, of whatever description, in its proper 
phice. The simplest kind is made of wire bent in the 
form of the letter U, but hair-pins are made also of ivory, 
bone, tortoise-shell, wood, and metal, and in various 
shapes, often with ornamental heads or tops. 
hair-powder (har'pou'der), n. A scented 
white powder used to sprinkle upon the hair of 
the head, in very general use in hair-dressing 
in the eighteenth century. An English law re- 
quired it to be made exclusively of starch, but 
flour was sometimes used. 
hair-pyrites (har'pi-ri"tez), n. Native sulphid 
of nickel occurring in capillary filaments, of a 
yellow-gray color. Also called haarkies and 
millerite. 
hair-quag (har'kwog), . Same as hair-clam. 
[Rhode Island, U. S.] 
hair-sac (har'sak), n. Same as hair-sheath. 
hair-salt (har'salt), . [= G. haar-salz; so 
called by Werner.] Same as epsomite and alu- 
nogen. 
hair's-breadth (harz'bredth), . The breadth 
of a hair, taken as the type of an indefinitely 
minute space or line, literal or figurative. See 
hairbreadth. 
The people has a right to be governed not only well, but 
as well as possible, and owes no thanks to its servants the 
governors for stopping a hair's-breadth short of this point. 
Brougham. 
It is precisely this audacity of self-reliance, I suspect, 
which goes far toward making the sublime, and which, 
falling by a hair's-breadth short thereof, makes the ridicu- 
lous. Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 301. 
hair-seal (har'sel), n. An eared seal of the 
subfamily Ti'ichophocinw : so called in distinc- 
tion trom fur-seal. 
hair-Shaped (har'shapt), a. In bot., finely fili- 
form or hair-like : often applied to the fine ram- 
ifications of the inflorescence of grasses. 
hair-Sheath (har'sheth), . The follicle in 
which the root of a hair grows and is sheathed ; 
a hair-follicle or root-sheath. Also called hair- 
sac. See cut under hair. 
The softening or destruction of the hair-sheaths, either 
by lime or by putrefaction. 
Workshop Receipts, 2d ser., p. 369. 
hair-space (har'spas), n. The thinnest space 
used by printers. 
hair-splitter (har'splifer), n. One given to 
hair-splitting or making sophistical distinc- 
tions in reasoning. 
It is not the cavilling hair-splitter, but, on the contrary, 
the single-eyed servant of truth, that is most likely to 
insist upon the limitation of expressions too wide or too 
vague. DC Quineey, Autobiog. Sketches, p. 61. 
hair-splitting (har'split'ing), . and a. I. n. 
The act or practice of making sophistical or 
over-nice distinctions in reasoning. Medieval 
writers were especially given to this method of escaping 
inconvenient consequences of their principles. The word 
is not properly applicable to the drawing of sound distinc- 
tions, however minute or difficult of apprehension they 
may be. 
Hair-splitting is a consecrated term to decry what might 
with more justice be termed " a tendency towards math- 
ematical exactitude In reasoning." Mind, XIII. 390. 
II. a. Making sophistical or over-nice dis- 
tinctions in reasoning; also, made by such 
reasoning. 
In the eulogy on Story he [Charles Sumner] speaks of 
. . . the ancient hair-splitting technicalities of special 
pleading. N. A. Rev., CXXVI. 6. 
hair-spring (har'spring), w. In watch-making, 
the fine hair-like spring coiled up within the 
balance-wheel and imparting motion to it. 
hairst (harst), . A dialectal (Scotch) form of 
harvest. 
Ae hairst afore the Shirra-muir. Burns, Halloween. 
hair-star (har'star), . A feather-star; a living 
crinoid of the family Comatulidce. 
hairstert (har'ster), n. [ME. hayrester; < hairl 
+ -ster.] A maker of hair garments ; a worker 
in hair. York Plays, Int.. p. xxv. 
hairstreak (har'strek), . One of the small 
dark butterflies of the genus Thecla; a theclan : 
so called from the minute hair-like appendages 
of the hind wings. The green hairstreak is T. 
rubi ; the black, T. pruni ; there are many others. 
hair-stroke (har'strok), n. 1. A fine up-stroke 
in penmanship. 2. In printing, the fine line 
at the top or bottom of a letter; a serif; a hair- 
line. 
hairtail (har'tal), . Any fish of the family 
Trichiurida:, as Trichinrus lepturus, remarkable 
for the attenuation of its tail as well as for its 
