noun
hairball
noun
1
A clump of swallowed fur that forms in the stomach of a cat or other grooming animal.
"The cat coughed up a hairball on the kitchen floor."
2
A messy, tangled problem that's hard to sort out.
"Untangling the company's finances turned into a total hairball."
How to Use Hairball
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishLiterally a lump of fur a pet coughs up, or figuratively a tangled mess of a problem.
Common pairings
cough up a hairball
a legal hairball
Word Forms
hairballs plural
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The cat coughed up a _____ on the kitchen floor.
Etymology
A straightforward combination of "hair" and "ball," describing a compacted clump of fur.