/ · 1894 Brewer’s · H · Hair-breadth Scape
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A very narrow escape from some evil. In measurement the forty-eighth part of an inch is called a “hair-breadth.”
“Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes i th’ imminent deadly breach.”
Shakespeare: Othello, i. 3.
· ·
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
· 
· 
· ·