From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwhiskerwhis‧ker /ˈwɪskə $ -ər/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 HBA[usually plural] one of the long stiff hairs that grow near the mouth of a cat, mouse etc2 [usually plural]DCB one of the hairs that grow on a man’s face3 → win/lose by a whisker4 → come within a whisker of (doing) something
Examples from the Corpus
whisker• Using a paint brush paint blue eyes and whiskers on to the rabbit's face and pink ears and a nose.• Two large tusks and whiskers were clearly visible.• Where there had been whiskers there was pancake makeup.• For rabbits, use red pimento for ears, strips of cucumber peel for whiskers and small pieces of olive for eyes.• She laughs and says his whiskers tickle.• Smoke issued in whiskers from hornos and chimneys.• One of the difficulties in the early stages of this work was to find any reasonably reliable method of measuring whisker strengths.• He lowered his head into his hands, fingers rasping whiskers.Origin whisker (1600-1700) whiskers “mustache” ((16-20 centuries)), from whisker “something that whisks or sweeps” ((15-19 centuries)), from whisk; because the mustache looks like a small brush 