hairy

[hair-ee] /ˈhɛər i/
adjective, hairier, hairiest.
1.
covered with hair; having much hair.
2.
consisting of or resembling hair:
moss of a hairy texture.
3.
Informal.
  1. causing anxiety or fright:
    a hairy trip through the rapids.
  2. full of hardship or difficulty:
    a hairy exam; a hairy illness.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English heeri. See hair, -y1
Related forms
hairiness, noun
unhairiness, noun
unhairy, adjective
Synonyms
1. furry, woolly, shaggy.
Examples from the web for hairy
  • Though beards and hairy legs may be unwanted, head hair is greatly desired.
  • Hair sets us apart from plants and mushrooms and reptiles, but several thousand other mammals are hairy, too.
  • hairy tongue is a harmless condition in which the tongue looks hairy or furry.
  • Not if the face you're looking at has a hairy wart on the tip of its nose.
  • Tarantulas give some people the creeps because of their large, hairy bodies and legs.
  • And they found that the results depend on how hairy you are.
  • Stiffly erect, branched, roughly hairy perennials with deeply cut leaves.
  • Its feet possess a pair of hairy pads used for walking on smooth surfaces, and a pair of claws used for walking on rough surfaces.
  • It's so hot when you show white tube socks and hairy legs.
  • Meeting one hairy millionaire in cycling shorts can be diverting.
British Dictionary definitions for hairy

hairy

/ˈhɛərɪ/
adjective hairier, hairiest
1.
having or covered with hair
2.
(slang)
  1. difficult or problematic
  2. scaring, dangerous, or exciting
Derived Forms
hairiness, noun
Word Origin and History for hairy
adj.

early 14c., from hair + -y (2). From 1848 in slang sense of "difficult." Farmer calls this "Oxford slang." Perhaps from the notion of "rugged, rough." Related: Hairiness.

hairy in Medicine

hairy hair·y (hâr'ē)
adj. hair·i·er, hair·i·est

  1. Covered with hair or hairlike projections.

  2. Consisting of or resembling hair.

Slang definitions & phrases for hairy

hairy

adjective
  1. Old; hoary: a hairy tale (1940s+)
  2. Difficult; rough; tough: We had a hairy time getting it all organized (1848+)
  3. Frighteningly dangerous; hair-raising; scary: Campus guards would comb the dorm ''It was hairy''/ the hairy strip of 42d Street (1940s+ Teenagers)

[last sense probably fr the hairy monsters of horror films, but the sense of ''difficult'' was used at 19th-century Oxford, and that of ''dangerous'' in the British armed forces of the 1930s]


hairy in Technology


1. Annoyingly complicated. "DWIM is incredibly hairy."
2. Incomprehensible. "DWIM is incredibly hairy."
3. Of people, high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible. Hard to explain except in context: "He knows this hairy lawyer who says there's nothing to worry about." See also hirsute.
The adjective "long-haired" is well-attested to have been in slang use among scientists and engineers during the early 1950s; it was equivalent to modern "hairy" and was very likely ancestral to the hackish use. In fact the noun "long-hair" was at the time used to describe a hairy person. Both senses probably passed out of use when long hair was adopted as a signature trait by the 1960s counterculture, leaving hackish "hairy" as a sort of stunted mutant relic.
4. hairy ball.
[Jargon File]
(2001-03-29)