hang by a hair

1. 1.

   depend on a small thing or be at risk

   “His life now hangs by a thread”

   Synonymshang by a thread

   Broaderdepend

Questions about hang by a hair

What does hang by a hair mean?

hang by a hair means "depend on a small thing or be at risk".

What is another word for hang by a hair?

Close synonyms include hang by a thread. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hang by a hair a common word?

hang by a hair is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.