whisker

[hwis-ker, wis-]

noun

1. whiskers, a beard.

2. Usually whiskers. side whiskers.

3. a single hair of the beard.

4. Archaic.,  a mustache.

5. one of the long, stiff, bristly hairs growing about the mouth of certain animals, as the cat or rat; vibrissa.

6. Also called whisker boom,. Also called whisker pole. Nautical.,  any spar for extending the clew or clews of a sail so that it can catch more wind.

7. Radio, Electronics.,  cat whisker.

8. Crystallography.,  a thin filament of a crystal, usually several millimeters long and one to two microns in diameter, having unusually great strength.

whisker

/ ˈwɪskə /

noun

1. Technical name: vibrissa. any of the stiff sensory hairs growing on the face of a cat, rat, or other mammal

2. any of the hairs growing on a person's face, esp on the cheeks or chin

3. (plural) a beard or that part of it growing on the sides of the face

4. informal,  (plural) a moustache

5. Also called: whisker boom.  whisker pole. any light spar used for extending the clews of a sail, esp in light airs

6. chem a very fine filamentary crystal having greater strength than the bulk material since it is a single crystal. Such crystals often show unusual electrical properties

7. a person or thing that whisks

8. a narrow margin; a small distance

   he escaped death by a whisker

Other Word Forms

• whiskery adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of whisker¹

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; whisk, -er ¹

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. by a whisker, by the narrowest margin.

   She won the race by a whisker.

see by a hair (whisker); win by a nose (whisker).

Example Sentences

I look at the slender brown hound next me, grey whiskers poking out round his nose.

From BBC

"Use of any force to maintain order and discipline is just a whisker away from when we used to hit people at school, frankly."

From BBC

The sight of Richard Parker, a growling behemoth of musculature and whiskers, is the most fearsome.

From Los Angeles Times

“That’s how they greet,” Ebsen told me a few weeks before, “their whiskers send signals straight up to their brain which tells them all about your smell, your hormones, everything.”

From Los Angeles Times

In the 16th century, California came within a Tudor whisker of being a queen’s land: Elizabeth I.

From Los Angeles Times