hang by a thread

1. 1.

   depend on a small thing or be at risk

   “His life now hangs by a thread”

   Synonymshang by a hair

   Broaderdepend

Questions about hang by a thread

What does hang by a thread mean?

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

What is another word for hang by a thread?

Close synonyms include hang by a hair. 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 thread a common word?

hang by a thread 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.