walrus mustache
1
6.6
- noun
- /ˈwɔːl.rəs ˈmʌs.tæʃ/
- If I felt upset at the idea of Microsoft and Random House in the same room, I had only to look at Brass, with his walrus mustache and crumpled gray suit, to calm down.
- a gray walrus mustache
- a man with a walrus mustache
Examples
-
The walrus mustache that almost completely covers his mouth moves nervously up and down.
Fiction book (1990) -
What can I get for you?" The innkeeper was fat and jolly, with a white walrus mustache.
Fiction book (1991) -
He turns to me, a big smile on his face, clean-shaven except for the semi-walrus mustache.
Fiction book (1999) -
Pulling out his sword again, Andrew managed a salute, which Pat returned with his usual dramatic flourish, his massive red muttonchops and walrus mustache drawing more than one envious look from the knights.
Fiction book (1990) -
Most other viewers will get fair warning about what they're in for during the opening credits, when they see Chris Noth wearing a walrus mustache that appears to have been assembled from belly-button lint.
Blog text (20) -
The burly man walked into the room sporting a thick, bushy walrus mustache that drooped over his mouth.
-
At the party, everyone noticed the jovial innkeeper with a prominent walrus mustache and a friendly smile.
-
The detective had a distinctive walrus mustache that twitched as he questioned the witnesses.
Synonyms
9
9.3
Hair on the upper lip that men usually grow
2
3.0
Thick hair above the upper lip on a man's face
1
2.1
A very large, bushy growth of hair above the upper lip that grows down the sides of the mouth
How Bushy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly inferable from the parts: a B1 learner who knows 'walrus' (an animal with prominent whiskers) and 'mustache' (facial hair) can readily infer a mustache that resembles a walrus's whiskers — i.e., thick, bushy and drooping. This resemblance-based composition is a straightforward, cross-linguistic metaphorical naming pattern, so the sense is predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The term walrus mustache comes from the animal: the walrus has thick whiskers that hang over its mouth. A mustache that looks like those whiskers is called a walrus mustache, so it means 'a thick, bushy mustache that droops over the mouth'.