hairpin

[ hair-pin ]
See synonyms for hairpin on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a slender U-shaped piece of wire, shell, etc., used by women to fasten up the hair or hold a headdress.

adjective
  1. (of a road, curve in a road, etc.) sharply curved back, as in a U shape: a hairpin turn.

Origin of hairpin

1
First recorded in 1770–80; hair + pin

Words Nearby hairpin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hairpin in a sentence

  • The hairpin or wire is bent as shown in the illustration, and the rubber band then placed on the inverted U-shaped part.

  • The car coasted down a long slope, crossed a bridge and began to go up a hairpin rise.

    The Onslaught from Rigel | Fletcher Pratt
  • The pressure was building now, as we blasted around in a hairpin curve, our acceleration picking up fast.

    Greylorn | John Keith Laumer
  • "Wonderful," said the Widow contemptuously, replacing the hairpin in the knob which was balanced on the top of her head.

    In a German Pension | Katherine Mansfield
  • And it was with him still, even when he was consciously concentrating on the hairpin turns of Mount Lawson's narrow road.

British Dictionary definitions for hairpin

hairpin

/ (ˈhɛəˌpɪn) /


noun
  1. a thin double-pronged pin used by women to fasten the hair

  2. (modifier) (esp of a bend in a road) curving very sharply

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012