split hairs
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To argue or focus on trivial or unimportant details
Literally: divide a single hair into parts
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
‘ Don't split hairs!’ she interrupted.
‘ This is turning into one of those mediaeval disputes which split hairs endlessly,’ he said.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “split hairs” mean?
To argue or focus on trivial or unimportant details Literally: divide a single hair into parts
Is “split hairs” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.