Word.ws English Dictionary

a hair past a freckle

a hair past a freckle noun: said when asked the time, humorously indicating that one does not know or does not care to check, or that one is not wearing a wristwatch and that nothing is to be seen on the wrist but hairs and freckles.

Noun

a hair past a freckle

  1. (humorous) Said when asked the time, humorously indicating that one does not know or does not care to check, or that one is not wearing a wristwatch and that nothing is to be seen on the wrist but hairs and freckles.
    • "What time is it?" she said.¶ "A hair past a freckle," he said, pretending to look at his wrist.1987, Joan Silber, In the City, New York: Penguin Books, published 1988, →ISBN, page 91
    • Eddie cocked his elbow and looked at his watch-less wrist. "A hair past a freckle, Eastern Elbow Time," he said. He gave Mrs. Marvelle his goofy grin.1994, Terry & Wayne Baltz, The Invisible Kid and the Killer Cat, Fort Collins: Prairie Divide Productions, →ISBN, page 85

Examples of a hair past a freckle in a sentence

  • I bussed it to The New Fruiton Times building and arrived at a hair past a freckle.2006, Jeff House, Writing Is Dialogue, Norwood: Christopher-Gordon, →ISBN, page 178:
  • "What time it is?"^([sic]) Jim looked at his empty wrist and said, "Just a hair past a freckle."2010, Alan Call, The Warf-A-Tron Report, Xlibris, →ISBN:
  • "It's a hair past a freckle, apparently."2011, Adrianne Byrd, King's Passion, New York: Kimani Press, →ISBN, pages 42–43:
  • I can see that it's half a hair past a freckle." This makes me laugh, so we do it every time.2016, Craig Lancaster, Edward Unspooled, Billings: Missouri Breaks Press, →ISBN, page 222:

Questions about a hair past a freckle

What does a hair past a freckle mean?
A hair past a freckle means said when asked the time, humorously indicating that one does not know or does not care to check, or that one is not wearing a wristwatch and that nothing is to be seen on the wrist but hairs and freckles.
How do you use a hair past a freckle in a sentence?
I bussed it to The New Fruiton Times building and arrived at a hair past a freckle.
What part of speech is a hair past a freckle?
A hair past a freckle is a noun.

Words near a hair past a freckle in the dictionary

  1. a good few
  2. a good look
  3. a good many
  4. a great deal
  5. a great many
  6. a hair past a freckle
  7. a hanger and a flogger
  8. a healthy body is a healthy mind
  9. a hit dog hollers
  10. a hit dog will holler
  11. a hoot and a holler

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: a hair past a freckle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-a hair past a freckle.wav.

Cite this entry: “a hair past a freckle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/a_hair_past_a_freckle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.