Definition

1. Noun (plural):
   • The hair growing on the lower part of a man's face: The coarse hair that grows on a man's cheeks and chin, typically referring to the full beard or sideburns.
   • The long, stiff hairs growing near the mouth of certain animals: The specialized sensory hairs, such as those on a cat, mouse, or seal, which are used for tactile sensing.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The old sailor had thick, gray whiskers. (The hair on the sailor's face was dense and gray.)
  • A cat uses its whiskers to navigate in the dark. (The stiff hairs near the cat's mouth help it sense its surroundings.)

Advanced Usage

• "To be the cat's whiskers" (idiom, British informal): To be considered excellent or outstanding.
  • He thinks his new car is the cat's whiskers. (He believes his new car is the very best.)

Variants and Related Words

• Whisker (noun, singular): A single hair of this type.
  • He found a single gray whisker on his chin.
• Whiskered (adjective): Having whiskers.
  • The whiskered man smiled.

Synonyms

• Beard: Hair growing on a man's chin and cheeks.
• Facial hair: General term for hair on the face.
• Vibrissae (technical, for animals): The scientific term for the stiff tactile hairs on mammals.

Related Phrases

• By a whisker (idiom): By a very small margin.
  • He won the race by a whisker. (He won by an extremely narrow margin.)

Related Idioms

• "To have whiskers" (informal): To be very old or outdated.
  • That joke has whiskers! (That joke is very old-fashioned.)

Noun

1. the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face