Definition of "hairball" []

• A small mass of hair in the stomach or intestine of an animal, such as a cat, that is accumulated when the animal swallows hair while licking its coat. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I still think IPTV is a political hairball, which is going to cause a lot of problems in the near term."
• "Hair clumped together might be called a hairball to some, but it's art to others."
• "Nope, those felted pins look like some kind of hairball/eggsacks from god-knows-what kind of insect/alien."