whiskers

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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.

whiskers

- Originally the word for a bundle of feathers, twigs, etc. used for whisking (from "whisk"), it then came to denote the projecting hairs or bristles of mammals.

See also related terms for twigs.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

whiskers - the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face

beard, face fungus

adult male body, man's body - the body of an adult man

facial hair - hair on the face (especially on the face of a man)

fuzz - the first beard of an adolescent boy

imperial, imperial beard - a small tufted beard worn by Emperor Napoleon III

beaver - a full beard

moustache, mustache - an unshaved growth of hair on the upper lip; "he looked younger after he shaved off his mustache"

goatee - a small chin beard trimmed to a point; named for its resemblance to a goat's beard

stubble - short stiff hairs growing on a man's face when he has not shaved for a few days

vandyke beard, vandyke - a short pointed beard (named after the artist Anthony Vandyke)

Attilio, soul patch - a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin

face, human face - the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear; "he washed his face"; "I wish I had seen the look on his face when he got the news"

Translations

شَوَارِب

vousy

knurhår

Backenbart Bart Barthaare Schnurrbart

kissan viikset

brkovi

ひげ

수염

morrhår

เคราแข็งสองข้างปาก

bıyık

râu mèo

腮须

whiskers

[ˈwɪskəz] npl (also side whiskers) → basette fpl; (beard) → barba; (moustache, of animal) → baffi mpl

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

whiskers

→ شَوَارِب vousy knurhår Barthaare μουστάκια γάτας bigotes kissan viikset moustaches brkovi baffi ひげ 수염 bakkebaarden værhår wąsy bigode de animal вибриссы morrhår เคราแข็งสองข้างปาก bıyık râu mèo 腮须

References in classic literature ?

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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This soldier carried a long green gun over his shoulder and had lovely green whiskers that fell quite to his knees.

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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."

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The next morning the soldier with the green whiskers came to the Scarecrow and said:

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Mr Lammle's utmost powers of sparkling were in requisition to-day, for Fascination Fledgeby and Georgiana not only struck each other speechless, but struck each other into astonishing attitudes; Georgiana, as she sat facing Fledgeby, making such efforts to conceal her elbows as were totally incompatible with the use of a knife and fork; and Fledgeby, as he sat facing Georgiana, avoiding her countenance by every possible device, and betraying the discomposure of his mind in feeling for his whiskers with his spoon, his wine glass, and his bread.