whisker

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Related to whisker: Cat whisker

whisk·er

(wĭs′kər, hwĭs′-)

a. whiskers The hair on a man's cheeks and chin.

b. A single hair of a beard or mustache.

2. One of the long stiff tactile bristles or hairs that grow near the mouth and elsewhere on the head of most mammals; a vibrissa.

3. Informal A narrow margin; a hairsbreadth: The candidate lost the election by a whisker.

4. Nautical One of two spars or booms projecting from the side of a bowsprit for spreading the jib or flying-jib guys.

5. Chemistry An extremely fine filamentary crystal with extraordinary tensile strength and unusual electrical or surface properties.

[Middle English wisker, anything that whisks, from wisken, to whisk; see whisk.]

whisk′ered, whisk′er·y adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

whisker

(ˈwɪskə)

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

2. (Hairdressing & Grooming) any of the hairs growing on a person's face, esp on the cheeks or chin

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

4. (Hairdressing & Grooming) (plural) informal a moustache

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

6. (Chemistry) 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.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

whisk•er

(ˈʰwɪs kər, ˈwɪs-)

n.

1. whiskers, a beard.

2. Usu., whiskers. the hair growing on the sides of a man's face, esp. when worn long and with the chin clean-shaven.

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. any spar for extending the clew or clews of a sail so that it can catch more wind.

Idioms:

by a whisker, by the narrowest margin.

[1400–50; late Middle English: fan, brush; see whisk, -er¹]

whisk′ered, adj.

whisk′er•y, adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	whisker - a very small distance or space; "they escaped by a hair's-breadth"; "they lost the election by a whisker" hairsbreadth, hair's-breadth, hair small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity - an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude
	2.	whisker - a long stiff hair growing from the snout or brow of most mammals as e.g. a cat sensory hair, vibrissa hair - a filamentous projection or process on an organism
Verb	1.	whisker - furnish with whiskers; "a whiskered jersey" bewhisker furnish, provide, supply, render - give something useful or necessary to; "We provided the room with an electrical heater"

whisker

noun

Informal. A slight amount or indication:

breath, dash, ghost, hair, hint, intimation, semblance, shade, shadow, soupçon, streak, suggestion, suspicion, taste, tinge, touch, trace, whiff, whisper.

Translations

شارِب القِطشَعْر الوَجْه، شارِب ، لِحْيَه ، سالِف

bakkenbartknurhåroverskægskæg

Backenbart Schnurrbarthaar

barbe

pofaszakáll

skegg, bartarveiîihár

baffo

apsirikti per plaukąsu žandenomisūsuotas

ūsasvaigubārda

værhår

dlaka

bıyık favori

动物嘴角上长的须络腮胡子

whisker

[ˈwɪskəʳ] N [of animal] → bigote m; (= hair) → pelo m
whiskers (Zool) → bigotes mpl; (= side whiskers) → patillas fpl; (= beard) → barba fsing; (= moustache) → bigote(s) m(pl)
by a whisker → por un pelo
within a whisker of he was within a whisker of falling down → le faltó un pelo para caer, faltó un pelo para que cayera

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

whisker

[ˈ^hwɪskə^r]

n
by a whisker → d'un cheveu
to come within a whisker of doing sth → passer à ça de faire qch whiskers

npl

[cat, mouse] → moustaches fpl

(= man's sideboards) → favoris mpl

[man's bristles] → poils mpl de barbe

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

whisker

n → Schnurrhaar nt; (of person) → Barthaar nt; whiskers (= moustache) → Schnurrbart m; (= side whiskers) → Backenbart m; (Zool) → Schnurrbart m; to win something by a whisker → etw fast gewinnen; to miss something by a whisker → etw um Haaresbreite verpassen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

whisker

(ˈwiskə) noun

1. in plural a man's moustache, beard and/or sideburns.

2. (usually in plural) one of the long hairs between the nose and the mouth of a cat etc.

ˈwhiskered, ˈwhiskery adjective

miss etc by a whisker

to manage only barely to miss etc.

References in classic literature ?

'Oh dear, such a naughty Whisker" cried the old lady.

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But all of my own sex - especially one impostor, three or four years my elder, with a red whisker, on which he established an amount of presumption not to be endured - were my mortal foes.

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Young Fledgeby had a peachy cheek, or a cheek compounded of the peach and the red red red wall on which it grows, and was an awkward, sandy- haired, small-eyed youth, exceeding slim (his enemies would have said lanky), and prone to self-examination in the articles of whisker and moustache.

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A prodigious growth of whiskers, greyish-dirty and untrimmed for years, sprouted from his face.

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(whose name was Samuel Whiskers),-- "Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding for my dinner."

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One voyager in Purchas calls them the wondrous whiskers inside of the whale's mouth; another, hogs' bristles; a third old gentleman in Hackluyt uses the following elegant language: There are about two hundred and fifty fins growing on each side of his upper chop, which arch over his tongue on each side of his mouth.

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"Halt!" said the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, not in a stern voice but rather in a friendly tone.

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Levin, who had long been familiar with these patriarchal methods, exchanged glances with Sviazhsky and interrupted Mihail Petrovitch, turning again to the gentleman with the gray whiskers.

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By this time the jailer had tired of sticking pins in the General, and was amusing himself by carefully pulling the Nome's whiskers out by the roots, one at a time.

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I detested his pink, bald head, and his yellow whiskers, always soft and glistening.

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'You have enough to eat and drink: You are respected in the world: And at the barber's, as I think, You often get your whiskers curled.

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"Dark complexion; hair, eyebrows, and whiskers, black; blue frock-coat, buttoned up to the chin; rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honor in his button-hole; a hat with wide brim, and a cane."