Definition of "hair"

hair

/hɛə/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural hairs
1. (countable) A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
  Quotations
  And draweth new delights with hoary hairs.
  1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iune. Aegloga Sexta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; republished as The Shepheardes Calender […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], 1586,
  Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 28, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 135
2. (uncountable) The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for a part of the head or for any part or the whole body.
  Quotations
  Her abundant hair, of a dark and glossy brown, was neatly plaited and coiled above an ivory column that rose straight from a pair of gently sloping shoulders, clearly outlined beneath the light muslin frock that covered them.
  1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […]
3. (zoology, countable) A slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.
4. (botany, countable) A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.
5. (countable) Any slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.
6. (countable, engineering, firearms) A locking spring or other safety device in the lock of a rifle, etc., capable of being released by a slight pressure on a hair-trigger.
7. (obsolete) Haircloth; a hair shirt.
  Quotations
  She, ful devout and humble in hir corage, / Under hir robe of gold, that sat ful faire, / Hadde next hir flessh yclad hir in an haire.
  c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Second Nun's Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales
  Thenne vpon the morne whanne the good man had songe his masse / thenne they buryed the dede man / Thenne syr launcelot sayd / fader what shalle I do / Now sayd the good man / I requyre yow take this hayre that was this holy mans and putte it nexte thy skynne / and it shalle preuaylle the gretelyThen in the morning when the priest had sung mass / then they buried the dead man/ then Sir Lancelot said/ Father what shall I do / Now said the priest / I require you to take this hair that was this saint's and put it on your scalp / and it shall serve you greatly
  1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “ij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XV
8. (countable) Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.
9. (slang, uncountable) Complexity; difficulty; the quality of being hairy.
  Quotations
  Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy.
  January 2014, Barack Obama, quoted in "Going the Distance" by David Remnick, in The New Yorker
verb
third-person singular simple present hairs, present participle hairing, simple past and past participle haired
1. (transitive) To remove the hair from.
  Quotations
  Now know ye, that in compliance with the said proviso, we the said John Cant and John Millar do hereby declare that our said invention of a new method of tanning leather is described in the manner following : that our method of preparing hides and skins by liming, hairing, fleshing, and baiting, is the same as that in use by the most experienced tanners; that is to say: All leather that is to be dressed or curried, we use the operation of what tanners call baiting, for this reason; that the leather when curried should carry a sufficient quantity of oil, and dry a good colour.
  1808, The Repertory of Patent Inventions, page 90
  By his method raw hides, after hairing and baiting, are converted into leather in less than thirty hours.
  1825, American Mechanics' Magazine - Volume 2, page 71
  I took 25 hides out of the Lime with Stephens help I haired them and fleshed them
  1971, Reuben King, Virginia S. Wood, Ralph V. Wood, The Reuben King Journal, 1800-1806, page 49
2. (intransitive) To grow hair (where there was a bald spot).
  Quotations
  He has haired up and healed over.
  1863, Yankee-notions - Volume 12, page 312
  It has haired over nicely. There are no bad results from it in any way whatever that I can detect.
  1887, National Stockman and Farmer - Volume 11, page 7
  The bald patch on his hip was hairing over and he no longer limped.
  1992, Hugh Ruppersburg, Georgia Voices: Fiction, page 492
3. (transitive) To cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair
  Quotations
  THE following classes of fiber are employed for hairing dolls : human hair, mohair, cross-bred wool, horsehair, hog-bristle, unspun cotton. Human hair is only used for hairing dolls of an extremely expensive class.
  1937, Dyestuffs - Volume 35, Issue 1, page 1
  So they did three different sculptures and then ran the masks and painted them, haired them, and sent them out to us.
  2014, Lee Karr, Greg Nicotero, The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
  The winter had haired them like llamas, the sleet had worked no hardship, as a horse paws to the grass, and any concern for the outside saddle stock was needless.
  2017, Andy Adams, Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings
4. To string the bow for a violin.
  Quotations
  The bow is now haired, and all that remains to make it ready for use is to rosin it.
  1896, Henry Saint-George, The Bow, Its History, Manufacture & Use, page 96
  The tools used for hairing a bow by various reparimen can be unlimited in their selection. A bowmaker has a different attitude toward hairing than a repairman and this I believe reflects the type of the finished job that is done.
  1969, John Alfred Bolander, Violin bow making, page 105
  To hair a bow, a hank of horse hair (A) is selected and combed so that all hairs are parallel to each other.
  2015, Michael J. Pagliaro, The String Instrument Owner's Handbook, page 108