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WHISKERY

 - 3 dictionary results

whisk⋅er

  [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, 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.
—Idiom
9. by a whisker, by the narrowest margin: She won the race by a whisker.
Use WHISKERY in a Sentence
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME; see whisk, -er 1

Related forms:
whisk⋅er⋅y, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source Link To WHISKERY
whisk·er   (hwĭs'kər, wĭs'-)   
n.  

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

    2. 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 shear strength and unusual electrical or surface properties.


[Middle English wisker, anything that wisks, from wisken, to whisk; see whisk.]
whisk'ered, whisk'er·y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

whisker 
"hair of a man's face" (usually plural), 1600, originally a playful formation, from M.E. wisker "anything that whisks or sweeps" (c.1425); see whisk (v.). In ref. to animal lip hair, recorded from 1678.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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