hairline

English

Etymology

From hair +‎ line.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛɹˌlaɪn/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

hairline (plural hairlines)

1. The line along one's forehead where hair starts growing.

   It's just a receding hairline — it's not like you're going bald.

   • 1984 May 28, Claudia Wallis, “Gone Today, but Hair Tomorrow”, in Time‎^[1]:

     Using a Danish technique, doctors can now insert plugs of just one or two hairs in front of an implanted area to simulate a natural hairline.

2. A very thin line in writing, drawing, or typography.
   1. A very thin fissure.

      While inspecting the new house, we found a few hairlines in one of the walls.

      • 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 102:

        Yup, you got a crack in it [the cylinder head] all right. Just a hairline, but that damn thing is gonna cause a big headache later.

3. A fishing line made from hair.

Translations

the line along one's forehead where hair starts growing

• Finnish: hiusraja (fi)
• Hungarian: hajvonal (hu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hårfeste n

  Nynorsk: hårfeste n

• Spanish: línea capilar f
• Turkish: saç çizgisi

thin line

• Finnish: hiusviiva (fi)
• Hungarian: hajszálvonal

A very thin fissure

• Finnish: hiusmurtuma (fi)
• German: Haarriss (de) m

Adjective

hairline

1. (figurative) Very thin, as thin as a hair.

   There was a hairline crack in the airplane's wing.