hide nor hair

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hide nor hair (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) A trace, indication, or evidence, especially of a person.

   He retired last June, and his coworkers have seen neither hide nor hair of him since.

   • 1885, Mark Twain, chapter 41, in Huckleberry Finn:

     Not a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight nor sound of them.

   • 1982, Richard Schickel, "Flesh and Flash" (review of Cat People), Time, 5 Apr.,

     No rational explanation for her lamentable condition is advanced, neither hide nor hair of a leopard is ever spotted, and certainly no scene in which woman literally turns into cat, or vice versa, is ever played.

Usage notes

• Used only in negative grammatical constructions to describe the complete absence of someone or something.

Synonyms

• hide or hair

Translations

trace

• Russian: (negative) ни слуху, ни духу (ni sluxu, ni duxu)