whisker

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: whisk=er

CIDE DICTIONARY

whisker, n. 

•  One who, or that which, whisks, or moves with a quick, sweeping motion.  [1913 Webster]
•  Formerly, the hair of the upper lip; a mustache; -- usually in the plural.  [1913 Webster]

  "Hoary whiskers and a forky beard."  [1913 Webster]
•  That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, or upon the chin, or upon both; as, side whiskers; chin whiskers.  [1913 Webster]
•  A hair of the beard.  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the long, projecting hairs growing at the sides of the mouth of a cat, or other animal.  [1913 Webster]
•  Iron rods extending on either side of the bowsprit, to spread, or guy out, the stays, etc.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

whisker, n.
1 (usu. in pl.) the hair growing on a man's face, esp. on the cheek.
2 each of the bristles on the face of a cat etc.
3 colloq. a small distance (within a whisker of; won by a whisker).
4 a strong hairlike crystal of metal etc.

Idiom

have (or have grown) whiskers colloq. (esp. of a story etc.) be very old.

Derivative

whiskered adj. whiskery adj.

Etymology

WHISK + -ER(1)

ROGET THESAURUS

whisker

Roughness

N roughness, tooth, grain, texture, ripple, asperity, rugosity, salebrosity, corrugation, nodosity, arborescence, pilosity, brush, hair, beard, shag, mane, whisker, moustache, imperial, tress, lock, curl, ringlet, fimbriae, pili, cilia, villi, lovelock, beaucatcher, curl paper, goatee, papillote, scalp lock, plumage, plumosity, plume, panache, crest, feather, tuft, fringe, toupee, wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down, byssus, moss, bur, fluff, knot (convolution), rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly, knotted, rugged, rugose, rugous, knurly, asperous, crisp, salebrous, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth, roughhewn, craggy, cragged, crankling, scraggy, prickly, arborescent, leafy, well-wooded, feathery, plumose, plumigerous, laciniate, laciniform, laciniose, pappose, pileous, pilose, trichogenous, trichoid, tufted, fimbriated, hairy, ciliated, filamentous, hirsute, crinose, crinite, bushy, hispid, villous, pappous, bearded, pilous, shaggy, shagged, fringed, befringed, setous, setose, setaceous, like quills upon the fretful porcupine, rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear, downy, velvety, flocculent, woolly, lanate, lanated, lanuginous, lanuginose, tomentose, fluffy, against the grain, cabello luengo y corto el seso.