By a hair's breadth
Meaning
To achieve or avoid something by a hair's breadth means to succeed or fail by an extremely small margin or distance.
Origin
Long before micrometers and lasers, how did you measure something incredibly tiny? You reached for the thinnest, most delicate thing imaginable: a single strand of human hair. This seemingly insignificant filament became the ultimate, visceral benchmark for an infinitesimal distance, a truly minuscule margin. So, "by a hair's breadth" entered our language, capturing that exact feeling—the thrill, or terror, of a near miss, where the difference between triumph and disaster was literally no thicker than one of those fine threads. It’s a beautifully simple, deeply human way to describe life’s closest shaves.
Examples
- The runner won the marathon by a hair's breadth, crossing the finish line just a fraction of a second before his rival.
- We escaped the accident by a hair's breadth when the other car swerved just in time to avoid a head-on collision.