| 释义 |
▪ I. whisker, n.1|ˈhwɪskə(r)|
Forms: 5–7 wisker, 6 whysker, (7 whisquer, 9 whiscar), 7– whisker.
[f. whisk v. + -er1. Cf. Sw. viskare sponge, swab, LG. wisker a rubber, duster, G. wischer rubber, clout, (fig.) reprimand.]
1. Something that whisks or is used for whisking: applied to various objects, as a fan; a rod or switch; a bunch of feathers used as a brush (cf. whisk n.1 4); etc. Obs. or dial.
c1425St. Mary of Oignies ii. iii. in Anglia VIII. 155 She sawe oure lady..as wiþ a wisker waftynge wynde vpon hir. 1567Harman Caveat (1869) 89 A whyp is a whysker, that wyll wrest out blood. 1611Cotgr., Houssine, a Switch, or Whisker. 1825Jamieson, Whisker, whiscar, a bunch of feathers for sweeping anything.
†2. A person who whisks or moves briskly about; a lively young gallant: cf. whisking ppl. a. 1 c.
1595Gosson Pleas. Quippes vii, When yoong wiskers..in no good sort will spend the day, But be prophane, more then a Turke.
3. slang or colloq. Something great or excessive, a ‘whopper’ (cf. whisking ppl. a. 2); esp. a great lie, a ‘bang’. Now rare or Obs.
1668Wilkins Real Char. 32 Relations belonging to Quantity..Greatness, Magnitude, ample, large, vast, huge,..whisker,..magnifie, aggravate, exaggerate. 1672Eachard Hobbs's State Nat., Let. 35 It may be convenient for you to call this..a flam, a whisker, a caprice. 1694Echard Plautus 9 Suppose I tell her some damn'd Wisker. [1858Wright Dict. Obs. & Prov. Engl. s.v., ‘The dam of that was a whisker’, a phrase used when a great falsehood was uttered.]
†b. A ‘whisking’ or blustering wind: see whisking ppl. a. 1 b. Obs.
1670Ray Prov. 288 March whisquer was never a good fisher.
4. The hair that grows on an adult man's face; formerly commonly applied to that on the upper lip, now called moustache, and sometimes to (or including) that on the chin (beard); now usu. restricted to that on the cheeks or sides of the face.
a. pl.: usually collective; sometimes distributive, as a pair of whiskers, denoting the hair on the two sides.
c1600Timon ii. ii. (1842) 27 My wiskers hanging o're the ouerlipp. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 259 Some spruce yonker, with a starcht beard, and his whiskers turn'd vp. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. Pref., The rank Mustachos into whiskers grown. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 390 His [sc. Persian's] Beard is Cut neatly, and the Whiskers..encouraged from one Ear to the other, in fashion of an Half-Moon on the upper Lip, with only a decent Peak on the under. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 152 What grew on my upper Lip..I had trimm'd into a large Pair of Mahometan Whiskers. 1808W. Wilson Hist. Diss. Ch. I. 141 The men members wore whiskers upon their upper lips. 1823E. Moor Suffolk Words, Whiskers, the hair on the upper lip, as until lately, I believe, all over England. Now, the hair under the ears, sometimes under the eyes also, bear[s] this term, and the labial comæ, are called moustaches. 1837Dickens Pickw. xli, A tall fellow, with..very thick bushy whiskers meeting under his chin. 1854R. S. Surtees Handley Cr. iii, He grew whiskers under his chin. 1878Besant & Rice Celia's Arb. ii, His whiskers..were cut to the old-fashioned regulation ‘mutton-chop’. They advanced into the middle of the cheek, and were then squared off in a line which met the large stiff collar below at an angle of forty-five.
b. sing.: in earlier use, a moustache; now, the hair on one side of the face; also collectively.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Whisker, a tuft of Hair on the Upper Lip of a Man. 1762Sterne Tr. Shandy V. i, La Fosseuse..traced the outline of a small whisker..upon one side of her upper lip. 1836H. Greville Diary 24 June (1883) 91 The ball lodged in the lining of the carriage, and some of the wadding in his whisker. 1848Dickens Dombey ii, He was a..shaggy fellow,..with a good deal of hair and whisker. 1851in Kinglake Crimea (1863) I. xiv. 267 A mere lad without whisker or moustache. 1875H. James R. Hudson v. 173 A tall..gentleman..with a carefully brushed whisker.
†c. Applied to a lady's curl hanging over the cheek. (Cf. whiskerette below.) Obs.
1786Pogonologia 55 About a century ago [in France] the ladies..curls hung down their cheeks as far as their bosom. These curls went by the name of whiskers.
d. Phr. to have whiskers and varr.: (of news, a subject, etc.) to be no longer novel or fresh; similarly to grow whiskers. Also concr., of food: to become contaminated with mould.
1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night viii. 182 That old story... It's got whiskers on it—it's six years old. 1951M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael vii. i. 345, I am putting on Capek's R.U.R. But it has got whiskers. It was quite a novelty when it was first put on. 1959Times 6 May 4/6 The subject is beginning to grow whiskers. 1977D. Francis Risk vii. 78 The steak in the fridge had grown whiskers. 1977D. O'Sullivan in D. Marcus Best Irish Short Stories II. 90 ‘Did I ever tell you the one about the Scotsman and the octopus?’.. ‘It has whiskers.’
5. a. Each of a set of projecting hairs or bristles growing on the upper lip or about the mouth of certain animals; also applied to a similar set of feathers in certain birds, and to mystacial markings.
1678Lond. Gaz. No. 1342/4 A light gray Gelding,..with an iron mark of a G. on the near Buttock, and two whiskers on the upper lip. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 329 The Raccoon has..Whiskers and Nose like a Pig. 1747Gray Cat iv, A whisker first and then a claw. 1752J. Hill Hist. Anim. 352 The lesser Butcher-bird,..there are about the angles of the beak certain rigid bristles or hairs, which serve as whiskers. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 85 The sea-otter is a large animal;..the eyes are small; the whiskers are white, strong, and numerous. 1879Huxley Sensation Sci. & Cult. (1881) 266 The ‘whiskers’ of cats owe their functional importance to the abundant supply of nerves to the follicles in which their bases are lodged.
b. fig. A very small distance or amount, a fraction: used chiefly in comparisons. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1913Dialect Notes IV. 6 Whisker, n., a little; a trifle. ‘Move it just a whisker.’ 1953Wall St. Jrnl. 11 Aug. 1/5 The London price is still a whisker below the 30 cents a pound charged by major U.S. producers. 1973P. O'Donnell Silver Mistress i. 13 Sooner or later they would go on a job and not come back... Even in the past year they had come within a whisker of it twice. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Mar. 236/2 In these storms at sea, sunsets, sunrises, cloud formations and light conditions, Turner was within a whisker of pre-empting the great Monet himself. 1983Times 15 July 18/3 Yesterday the shares rose 2p to 99p—a whisker from the year's high. 1984Listener 14 June 15/3 Someone shoots for goal, and he either misses it by a whisker or by miles.
c. Electr. A wire used to form a rectifying contact with the surface of a semiconductor; cf. cat's whisker s.v. cat n.1 18 and 19.
1915, etc. [see cat(s') whisker s.v. cat n.1 18 and 19]. 1949Ann. Reg. 1948 418 By the addition of a second wire whisker touching the germanium within a few thousands of an inch of the first the diode was converted into a triode. 1959K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. (ed. 5) ix. 15 These diodes are representative of a family of germanium point-contact diodes using unplated whiskers. 1975D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. ix. 62 Until 1965 point contact diodes were fabricated utilizing moderately low resistivity material with the rectifying contact established by contacting the semiconductor surface with a metal whisker.
6. Naut.
a. Each of two wooden or iron spars extending laterally on each side of the bowsprit, for spreading the guys of the jib-boom.
1844Mrs. Houston Yacht Voy. Texas II. 15 Our fore-top-mast was carried away, as well as the larboard whisker. 1885A. Brassey The Trades 382 It was found that the whiskers of the jibboom had carried away. 1913M. Roberts Salt of the Sea viii. 208 Between the whiskers and the fore-mast.
b. A lever for exploding a torpedo.
1880Sleeman Torpedoes 135 In addition to the nose piece, horizontal and vertical levers, or whiskers, may also be used.
7. A single crystal that has grown in a filamentous form a few microns thick, characterized by a tensile strength much greater than the bulk material and used in quantity as reinforcing agents.
1946Monthly Rev. Amer. Electroplaters' Soc. Jan. 28/1 The growth of needle-crystals on cadmium deposits has caused considerable annoyance in the radio industry. These crystals are known as ‘whiskers’. They grow between condenser plates of variable condensers, and, being electrical conductors, actually short-circuit the plates. 1951Corrosion VII. 329/1 An attempt was made to develop whisker growths in the laboratory. 1961New Scientist 28 Dec. 776/3 Whiskers, the hair-like crystals which are far stronger than steel, are now being incorporated in bonding materials: for example, General Electric's silver reinforced with sapphire whiskers. 1973Sci. Amer. July 44/2 Alumina whiskers have a tensile strength of up to three million pounds per square inch and a modulus of 62 million pounds per square inch.
8. attrib. and Comb. (in sense 4). whisker pole Naut. (see quot. 1976); = sense 6 a.
1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Wisker splitter, a man of intrigue. 1786Pogonologia 80 It was then [sc. in Lewis XIV's reign] no uncommon thing for a..lover to have his whiskers..combed, and pomatumed by his mistress; and..a man of fashion took care to be..provided with..whisker-wax. 1813Moore Post-Bag viii. 14 When the rich rouge-pot..Tips even thy whisker-tops with red. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. xi, He told Verdant, that his claret had been repeatedly tapped,..his whisker-bed [i.e. face] napped heavily. 1954Motor Boating Dec. 27/1 Iris was flying all her kites—main, mizzen, genoa winged out on the whisker pole, and mizzen staysails. 1960J. J. Rowlands Spindrift 204 On the yacht-club float a girl..is rubbing down the last coat of varnish on a whisker pole. 1976Oxf. Compan. Ships & Sea 938/1 Whisker pole, a short bearing-out spar used in yachts and sailing dinghies to bear out the clew of the jib on the opposite side of the mainsail when running before the wind, thus obtaining some of the advantage which would be gained in a larger vessel when she sets a spinnaker. 1980Yachts & Yachting 29 Feb. 651/2 ‘American Express’ carried two poles that extended from 11.5 ft to 18 ft plus a standard pole of 7.5 ft. The long ones were used as a spinnaker pole in the collapsed position, as whisker pole in the fully extended position, and as a bowsprit in the 14ft length.
Hence ˈwhisker v. trans. (nonce-wd.), to furnish with whiskers; ˈwhiskerage, whiskers collectively, a growth of whiskers; ˈwhiskerer (nonce-wd.), a man who wears whiskers; whiskeˈrette, a small whisker; a curl at the side of a girl's face (cf. sense 4 c above); ˈwhiskerless a., destitute of whiskers.
1812Examiner 5 Oct. 632/2 Deliberating how still further to Germanize and to *whisker out British soldiers.
1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. i. i. (1872) I. 6 Fellows..with such a breadth of sabre, extent of *whiskerage [etc.]. 1859Meredith R. Feverel xxxvi, The trim of their whiskerage.
1717Entertainer No. i. 4 We are no *Whiskerers of the Order of St. Jacobs.
1880Athenæum 2 Oct. 440 Her hair is trimly curled in ‘*whiskerettes’. 1896Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 23 Sept., A man wearing whiskers,..his chin shaven and allowing two distinct whiskerettes to be plainly discerned.
1843Dickens Mart. Chuz. (1844) ii. 10 His very throat was moral... Serene and *whiskerless. 1848― Dombey xxxi, Mr. Towlinson is whiskerless.
▪ II. whisker, n.2
whist-player: see whisk n.2 |