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whisker

[hwis-ker, wis-]

Origin

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.

EXPAND

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.

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.

COLLAPSE

Idiom

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

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Whisker is always a great word to know.

So is gobo. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

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Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English; see whisk, -er¹

Related forms

whisk·er·y, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To whisker

Collins

World English Dictionary

whisker (ˈwɪskə)

—n
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.	whisker boom, Also called: 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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

whisker

"hair of a man's face" (usually plural), c.1600, originally a playful formation, from M.E. wisker "anything that whisks or sweeps" (early 15c.); see whisk (v.). In ref. to animal lip hair, recorded from 1670s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

whisker

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