whiskery

English

Etymology

whisker +‎ -y

Adjective

whiskery (comparative more whiskery, superlative most whiskery)

1. Having whiskers; bewhiskered.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Book of Snobs, London: Punch Office, Chapter 34, “Snobs and Marriage,” pp. 129-130,^[1]

     […] the old lady is as ugly as any woman in the parish, and as tall and whiskery as a Grenadier.

   • 1902, Jack London, A Daughter of the Snows, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 20,^[2]

     “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.”

   • 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, New York: Modern Library, 1992, Chapter 2, p. 179,^[3]

     At a corner table two whiskery ranch hands were playing checkers.

   • 2008, Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture, London: Faber & Faber, Part One, Chapter Eight, p. 81,^[4]

     I looked at Dr Grene and tried to imagine him altered by the moon, more whiskery, a werewolf possibly.

2. Having protrusions resembling whiskers.
   • 1962, Edward Abbey, Fire on the Mountain, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1978, Chapter 2, p. 73,^[5]

     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.

   • 2005, Martha L Crump, Alan Crump, Headless males make great lovers

     The whiskery batfish (a kind of anglerfish) is covered with outgrowths of skin that resemble bits of seaweed.

3. Resembling whiskers.
   • 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, New York: Norton, Part One, Chapter 7, p. 72,^[6]

     […] 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.

   • 1981, Wendy Simons, Odd Woman Out, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Chapter 20, p. 184,^[7]

     He nodded his head toward an ancient armchair spewing out its whiskery stuffing.

   • 2017, Stephanie Zacharek, “In Life, the blob from Mars is small and very scary,” Time, 3 April, 2017,^[8]

     At first, all he sees is a harmless-looking blob, a microscopic single-cell organism sporting a couple of whiskery flagella.

4. Involving or caused by whiskers.
   • 1997, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, London: Bloomsbury, Chapter 1,

     He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss.

   • 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book Three, “Flesh and Blood,” p. 373,^[9]

     Despite my lightheadedness, I could feel everything. The shocking wetness of his mouth. The whiskery feel of his lips. His barging tongue.

5. (UK, humorous) Old.
   • 2001, Peter Mayle, French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew, New York: Knopf, “The Inner Frenchman,” p. 8,^[10]

     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.