hair idiom

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   An idiom that uses the word hair, such as 'let your hair down' or 'split hairs'.

   Grammar: Countable: you can talk about a hair idiom or several hair idioms.

   Patterns

   • a common hair idiom
   • learn hair idioms

   'Let your hair down' is a popular hair idiom meaning to relax and enjoy yourself.

   Teachers often introduce hair idioms like 'keep your hair on' to intermediate students.

   The quiz asked us to match each hair idiom with its meaning.

2. 2phrasefixed phraseinformal

   Used to talk about the figurative expressions built around hair in English.

   Grammar: Often used as a heading or topic label, not as a normal noun phrase in a sentence.

   Patterns

   • hair idioms and their meanings
   • a list of hair idioms

   Her blog post is called 'Hair Idioms You Should Know'.

   We studied hair idioms such as 'make your hair stand on end'.

   The teacher wrote 'hair idioms' on the board and asked for examples.

Word forms

Common combinations

let your hair down

After the exams, we let our hair down at the party.

split hairs

Don't split hairs over a few dollars; it's not worth arguing.

keep your hair on

Keep your hair on! I was only joking.

make your hair stand on end

The ghost story made my hair stand on end.

get in someone's hair

The kids were getting in my hair while I tried to work.

Synonyms and how they differ

expression

Expression is a general word for a fixed phrase; hair idiom specifically means one that contains the word hair.

saying

A saying is a well-known short phrase of wisdom; a hair idiom is any idiom involving hair, not necessarily a piece of wisdom.

figure of speech

Figure of speech is a broad term for non-literal language; hair idiom is narrower and names the topic word.

Word family

idiom noun

A group of words whose meaning is not obvious from the individual words.

idiomatic adjective

Sound natural and correct in a language, as in idiomatic English.

hairy adjective

Covered with hair; informally, dangerous or frightening.

Commonly confused: hair idiom or haircut?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “hair idiom”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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