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hairy

 
Dictionary: hair·y   (hâr'ē) pronunciation
adj., -i·er, -i·est.
  1. Covered with hair or hairlike projections: a hairy caterpillar.
  2. Consisting of or resembling hair: a hairy overcoat.
  3. Slang. Fraught with difficulties; hazardous: a hairy escape; hairy problems.
hairiness hair'i·ness n.

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Thesaurus: hairy
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Antonyms: hairy
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adj

Definition: dangerous
Antonyms: calm, safe

adj

Definition: having much hair
Antonyms: bald, balding, clean, hairless, short-haired


Hacker Slang: hairy
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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.

There is a theorem in simplicial homology theory which states that any continuous tangent field on a 2-sphere is null at least in a point. Mathematically literate hackers tend to associate the term ‘hairy’ with the informal version of this theorem; “You can't comb a hairy ball smooth.” (Previous versions of this entry associating the above informal statement with the Brouwer fixed-point theorem were incorrect.)

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 senses 1 and 2, and was very likely ancestral to the hackish use. In fact the noun ‘long-hair’ was at the time used to describe a person satisfying sense 3. 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.

In British mainstream use, “hairy” means “dangerous”, and consequently, in British programming terms, “hairy” may be used to denote complicated and/or incomprehensible code, but only if that complexity or incomprehesiveness is also considered dangerous.


Characterized by a covering of hairs.

  • h. angels’ trumpetdatura metel.
  • h. caltropkallstroemia hirsutissima.
  • h. caterpillars — elongated mucosal erosions occur in mouths of horses grazing pasture infested with hairy caterpillars. See also erosive stomatitis.
  • h. cell leukemia — a condition of humans, of which a counterpart is seen in cats. Previous name was reticuloendotheliosis.
  • h. gousiektebossiepachystigma pygmaeum.
  • h. millet — see panicum effusum.
  • h. panic grass — see panicum effusum.
  • h. shakers — see border disease.
  • h. thornappledatura metel.
  • h. vetch — see vicia villosa.
Word Tutor: hairy
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: adj. - Having or covered with fur adj. - Hazardous and frightening.

Tutor's tip: Some parents "harry" (pressure) their children because they get too "hairy" (having lots of hair) between haircuts.

Translations: Hairy
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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - håret, behåret, modbydelig, farlig, håragtig, hår-, gammel (om vittighed)

Nederlands (Dutch)
harig, behaard, haarachtig, hachelijk, voortreffelijk

Français (French)
adj. - poilu, velu, chevelu, (Bot) villeux, atroce

Deutsch (German)
adj. - haarig, behaart

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - μαλλιαρός, τριχωτός, δασύτριχος

Italiano (Italian)
peloso, capelluto

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - peludo, cabeludo, hirsuto

Русский (Russian)
волосатый, волосяной, страшный, опасный, старый, с бородой

Español (Spanish)
adj. - peludo, melenudo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - hårig, besvärlig, skräckfylld

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
多毛的, 长毛的, 毛状的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 多毛的, 長毛的, 毛狀的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 털이 많은, 등골이 오싹한, 힘드는 , 험한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 毛深い, 毛のような, 毛だらけの

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) مكسو بالشعر, أشعر كثير الشعر, شعري مصنوع من شعر, فظ, رهيب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מכוסה שיער, שעיר‬


 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Hacker Slang. The Jargon File. Copyright © 2007.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
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