against the hair
English
Prepositional phrase
against the hair
- (obsolete) In a rough and disagreeable manner; against the grain.
- c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:
- He is the wiser man, master doctor: he is a curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies; if you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions.
- 1644, David Hume, The History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, Edinburgh, Part II, p. 248,
- But his Army loved him not; all went unwillingly with him, and against the hair.
- 1663, [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, OCLC 890163163; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, OCLC 963614346, page 74:
- And yet hee’l smile, but then beware,
For sure it is against the hair;
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