almost vs by a hair

almost

adv
  • Up to a null set; except for a set of measure 0. 

  • Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined). 

  • Very close to, but not quite. 

noun
  • Something or someone that doesn't quite make it. 

by a hair

How often have the words almost and by a hair occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )