hairball

English

Etymology

From hair +‎ ball.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hairball (plural hairballs)

1. 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. (slang, figuratively) A messy, tangled, intractable issue.

   The contract negotiations are turning into a real hairball.

Synonyms

• bezoar

Translations

wad of fur

• Catalan: bola de pèl f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 毛團／毛团 (zh) (máotuán)

• Dutch: haarbal (nl) m
• Esperanto: bezoaro
• Finnish: karvakerä
• French: égagropile (fr) m
• German: Fellknäuel n, Haarballen m
• Hungarian: köpet (hu)
• Italian: borra f
• Japanese: 毛玉 (ja)
• Norwegian: hårball
• Polish: zakłaczenie f, kłak (pl) m
• Portuguese: pricobezoar m, bola de pelo f
• Spanish: bezoar m

intractable issue

• Esperanto: kaĉo (eo)
• Spanish: peludo (es) m, tema peludo m

Anagrams

• ballhair