whisker

American  

[hwis-ker, wis-] / ˈʰwɪs kər, ˈwɪs- /

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,.  Also called 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.

---

idioms

1. by a whisker, by the narrowest margin.

   She won the race by a whisker.

whisker British  

/ ˈwɪskə /

noun

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. Also called: whisker boom.   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

---

whisker More Idioms  

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

---

Other Word Forms

• whiskery adjective

Etymology

Origin of whisker

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; whisk, -er ¹

Example Sentences

Stocks came within a whisker of a new bear market, Treasury yields spiked and the VIX “fear gauge” reached a level not seen since the Covid-19 panic.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

Before that, he was third in the Kentucky Derby by a whisker while being on the receiving end of some bumping down the stretch by Sierra Leone.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2025

Current polling, notoriously imprecise in Argentina, shows the Peronists winning 64% of Parliament’s Lower House, a whisker away from the two-thirds supermajority, says Matt Gertken, geopolitical strategist at BCA Research.

From Barron's • Oct. 24, 2025

The problem was media coverage of the study created the impression that Kipyegon was already running the equivalent of a sub-four mile, or was just a whisker away from doing so with proper aerodynamic assistance.

From Slate • Jun. 28, 2025

It took a bit more nibbling, whisker stroking, and tail twitching to establish that by ekorn the fishermen meant squirrel, while eikenøtt seemed to be the Norwegian word for acorn.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood