HAIRBALL

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 ...

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Hairball
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hairball

Noun

  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. A messy, tangled, intractable, stay-away-from-it issue.
    The contract negotiations are turning into a real hairball.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: hairball
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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