whiskery
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more whiskery
form: most whiskery
Etymology: From whisker + -y.
Senses: examples: text: [T]he old lady is as ugly as any woman in the parish, and as tall and whiskery as a Grenadier.
ref: 1846 February 28 – 1847 February 27, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Snobs and Marriage”, in The Book of Snobs, London: Punch Office, […], published 1848, →OCLC, pages 129-130:
text: "Don't you my-dear me," she sniffed. "I don't like you." / "Why?" / "Cos …" She ladled the punch carefully into the mugs and meditated. "Cos you chew tobacco. Cos you're whiskery. Wot I take to is smooth-faced young chaps."
ref: 1902 October, Jack London, chapter XX, in A Daughter of the Snows, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 209:
text: At a corner table two whiskery ranch hands were playing checkers.
ref: 1966, Truman Capote, “Chapter 2”, in In Cold Blood, New York: Modern Library, published 1992, page 179:
text: I looked at Dr Grene and tried to imagine him altered by the moon, more whiskery, a werewolf possibly.
ref: 2008, Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture, London: Faber & Faber, Part One, Chapter Eight, page 81:
glosses: Having whiskers.
examples: text: Smiling, he gave us a salute, turned his horse and rode down the trail, through the high hairy weeds and whiskery flowers thriving among the rocks and faded ruts of the road.
ref: 1962, Edward Abbey, “Chapter 2”, in Fire on the Mountain, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, published 1978, page 73:
text: The whiskery batfish (a kind of anglerfish) is covered with outgrowths of skin that resemble bits of seaweed.
ref: 2005, Martha L Crump, Alan Crump, Headless males make great lovers:
glosses: Having protrusions resembling whiskers.
examples: text: […] all the white trees, tall like poles, that went up and up to where, right at the top, among whiskery branches, were bits of blue that were the sky.
ref: 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, New York: Norton, Part One, Chapter 7, page 72:
text: He nodded his head toward an ancient armchair spewing out its whiskery stuffing.
ref: 1981, Wendy Simons, chapter 20, in Odd Woman Out, New York: St. Martin’s Press, page 184:
text: At first, all he sees is a harmless-looking blob, a microscopic single-cell organism sporting a couple of whiskery flagella.
ref: 2017 April 3, Stephanie Zacharek, “In Life, the blob from Mars is small and very scary”, in Time:
glosses: Resembling whiskers.
examples: text: He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss.
ref: 1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter 1, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
text: 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book Three, “Flesh and Blood,” p. 373,
Despite my lightheadedness, I could feel everything. The shocking wetness of his mouth. The whiskery feel of his lips. His barging tongue.
glosses: Involving or caused by whiskers.
examples: text: It is, of course, the most whiskery old cliché, but clichés usually have their basis in fact, and this one certainly does: Historically, the French have paid extraordinary—some would say excessive—attention to what they eat and how they eat it.
ref: 2001, Peter Mayle, “The Inner Frenchman”, in French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew, New York: Knopf, page 8:
text: I checked it out, and there were some good—if whiskery—stories.
ref: 2009 January 14, Simon Hoggart, “Simon Hoggart’s Sketch: Short-selling sermons as God takes on Mammon”, in The Guardian:
glosses: Old.
Synonyms: sense: having whiskers
word: bewhiskered
sense: having whiskers
word: whiskered