cat's whisker

American  

noun

1. cat whisker.

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cat's whisker British  

noun

1. a pointed wire used to make contact with the crystal in a crystal radio receiver

2. any wire used to make contact with a semiconductor

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Etymology

Origin of cat's whisker

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle wins gold "by a cat's whisker" after a dramatic photo finish in the men's snowboard cross final.

From BBC • Feb. 10, 2022

As president, he kept the number “118,573” tucked in his suit pocket, to remind him of the cat’s whisker margin of his popular-vote victory and the need to keep his campaign promise.

From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 11, 2016

He has that rare combination of intellectual capacity and military audacity, and can calculate to a cat's whisker the risk involved in operations when successful accomplishments will bring great returns.

From Time Magazine Archive

He would like to have thanked them, but how can you thank two bowling balls with scalps of cat’s whisker wire?

From Hunters Out of Space by Kelleam, Joseph Everidge

His hair stood out like a halo of straw, and one defiant wisp reared itself above his forehead with the grace of a cat's whisker.

From Harper's Young People, October 19, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly by Various