What does hairball mean?

Definitions for hairball
ˈhɛərˌbɔlha·ir·ball

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word hairball.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. hairball, hair ball, trichobezoarnoun

    a compact mass of hair that forms in the alimentary canal (especially in the stomach of animals as a result of licking fur)

Wiktionary

  1. hairballnoun

    A small wad of fur or mass of hair formed in the digestive system of a cat or other animal, from hair ingested while grooming.

  2. hairballnoun

    A messy, tangled, intractable, stay-away-from-it issue.

Wikipedia

  1. Hairball

    A hairball is a small collection of hair or fur formed in the stomach of animals, and uncommonly in humans, that is occasionally vomited up when it becomes too big. Hairballs are primarily a tight elongated cylinder of packed fur, but may include bits of other elements such as swallowed food. Animals with hairballs are sometimes mistaken as having other conditions of the stomach such as lymphosarcoma, tuberculosis, and tumor of the spleen. Cats are especially prone to hairball formation since they groom themselves by licking their fur, and thereby ingest it. Rabbits are also prone to hairballs because they groom themselves in the same fashion as cats, but hairballs are especially dangerous for rabbits because they cannot regurgitate them. Due to the fragility of their digestive systems, hairballs in rabbits must be treated immediately or they may stop feeding and ultimately die from dehydration. Cattle are also known to accumulate hairballs but, as they do not vomit, these are found usually after death and can be quite large.

ChatGPT

  1. hairball

    A hairball is a small collection of hair or fur formed in the stomach of animals, especially cats, and expelled through the mouth. It is typically caused by the animal's self-grooming process where they ingest their own hair which then accumulates in the stomach, forming a ball-like shape. In computing, the term 'hairball' can also refer to a particularly complex tangle of systems, code, or processes which are difficult to manage or understand.

Wikidata

  1. Hairball

    A hairball is a small collection of hair or fur formed in the stomach of animals that is occasionally vomited up when it becomes too big. Hairballs are primarily a tight elongated cylinder of packed fur, but may include bits of other elements such as swallowed food. Hairballs are sometimes mistaken for other conditions of the stomach such as lymphosarcoma, tuberculosis, and tumour of the spleen. Cats are especially prone to hairball formation since they groom themselves by licking their fur, and thereby ingest it. Rabbits are also prone to hairballs because they groom themselves in the same fashion as cats, but hairballs are especially dangerous for rabbits because they cannot regurgitate them. Because the digestive system of a rabbit is very fragile, rabbit hairballs must be treated immediately or they may cause the animal to stop feeding and ultimately die due to dehydration. Cattle are also known to accumulate hairballs, but as they do not vomit, these are found usually after death and can be quite large. Although uncommon in humans, some hairballs have been reported. These hairballs occur when hair strands collect in the stomach and are unable to be ejected as a result of the friction on the surface of the gastric mucosa. Hairballs are often seen in young girls as a result of trichophagia, trichotillomania and pica. In 2003, a 3-year old girl in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada had a grapefruit-sized hairball surgically removed from her stomach; and in 2004, an 18-year old woman from McAdam, New Brunswick, Canada, had a 2.3 kg hairball surgically removed from her lower intestine. Hairballs can be quite hazardous in humans, since hair cannot be digested or passed by the human gastrointestinal system, and even vomiting may be ineffective at removing the hair mass. This can result in the general impairment of the digestive system.

The New Hacker's Dictionary

  1. hairball

    1. [Fidonet] A large batch of messages that a store-and-forward network is failing to forward when it should. Often used in the phrase “Fido coughed up a hairball today”, meaning that the stuck messages have just come unstuck, producing a flood of mail where there had previously been drought. 2. An unmanageably huge mass of source code. “JWZ thought the Mozilla effort bogged down because the code was a huge hairball.” 3. Any large amount of garbage coming out suddenly. “Sendmail is coughing up a hairball, so expect some slowness accessing the Internet.”

Matched Categories

How to pronounce hairball?

How to say hairball in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of hairball in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of hairball in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of hairball in a Sentence

  1. Christina Rossetti:

    Hope is like a hairball trembling from its birth...

Popularity rank by frequency of use

hairball#10000#94040#100000

Translations for hairball

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for hairball »

Translation

Find a translation for the hairball definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"hairball." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/hairball>.

Discuss these hairball definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for hairball? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    hairball

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals
    A sousing
    B scalawag
    C hypostatization
    D sundog

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for hairball: