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whisker
[hwis-ker, wis-]
noun
whiskers, a beard.
Usually whiskers. side whiskers.
a single hair of the beard.
Archaic.a mustache.
one of the long, stiff, bristly hairs growing about the mouth of certain animals, as the cat or rat; vibrissa.
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.
Radio, Electronics.cat whisker.
Crystallography.a thin filament of a crystal, usually several millimeters long and one to two microns in diameter, having unusually great strength.
whisker
/ ˈɪə /
noun
Technical name: vibrissa.any of the stiff sensory hairs growing on the face of a cat, rat, or other mammal
any of the hairs growing on a person's face, esp on the cheeks or chin
(plural) a beard or that part of it growing on the sides of the face
informal(plural) a moustache
Also called: whisker boom. whisker pole.any light spar used for extending the clews of a sail, esp in light airs
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
a person or thing that whisks
a narrow margin; a small distance
he escaped death by a whisker
Other Word Forms
- whiskery adjective
Word History and Origins
Idioms and Phrases
by a whisker, by the narrowest margin.
She won the race by a whisker.
Example Sentences
"Use of any force to maintain order and discipline is just a whisker away from when we used to hit people at school, frankly."
The sight of Richard Parker, a growling behemoth of musculature and whiskers, is the most fearsome.
“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.”
In the 16th century, California came within a Tudor whisker of being a queen’s land: Elizabeth I.
Celtic won, by a whisker or by a mile, it doesn't really matter.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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