From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstubblestub‧ble /ˈstʌbəl/ noun [uncountable] 1 HBHshort stiff hairs that grow on a man’s face if he does not shave2 TAshort stiff pieces left in the fields after wheat, corn etc has been cut —stubbly adjective
Examples from the Corpus
stubble• Laughter rolls across the brush and stubble.• Spraying crops and burning stubble also provoke outcries from nearby residents.• The young man stood patiently waiting, in jeans with rolled cuffs, two days' stubble on his chin.• Grey stubble covered his cheeks and chin.• I could hear his hand moving over the stubble of his beard. fourteen White Sands was astonishing.• The stubble is not a superstitious concession to the streak.• The white stubble on his fleshless jaw was a reproach to my twenty-four years and suddenly I felt an inadequate city-bred softie.Origin stubble (1200-1300) Old French estuble, from Latin stupula “straw” 