hide nor hair

English

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Noun

hide nor hair (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) A trace, indication, or evidence, especially of a person.
    He retired last June, and his coworkers have seen neither hide nor hair of him since.
    • 1885, Mark Twain, chapter 41, in Huckleberry Finn:
      Not a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight nor sound of them.
    • 1982, Richard Schickel, "Flesh and Flash" (review of Cat People), Time, 5 Apr.,
      No rational explanation for her lamentable condition is advanced, neither hide nor hair of a leopard is ever spotted, and certainly no scene in which woman literally turns into cat, or vice versa, is ever played.

Usage notes

  • Used only in negative grammatical constructions to describe the complete absence of someone or something.

Synonyms

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.