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by a whisker

 - 2 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.
9. by a whisker, by the narrowest margin: She won the race by a whisker.

Origin:
1375–1425; late ME; see whisk, -er 1


whisk⋅er⋅y, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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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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