hang by a hair

hang by a hair (third-person singular simple present hangs by a hair, present participle hanging by a hair, simple past and past participle hung by a hair)

1. Synonym of hang by a thread
   • 1904 November 10, Henry James, The Golden Bowl, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     This was the moment in the whole process of their mutual vigilance in which it decidedly most hung by a hair that their thin wall might be pierced by the lightest wrong touch.