near miss vs whisker

near miss

noun
  • an attempt which fails narrowly; a performance which falls just short of a certain benchmark 

  • a miss which was nearly a hit or collision 

  • a scenario which ends safely but might well have ended in disaster 

whisker

noun
  • The (very small) distance between two things. 

  • A small tendril that forms on metal. 

  • One who, or that which, whisks, or moves with a quick, sweeping motion. 

  • One of the long, projecting hairs growing at the sides of the mouth of a cat, or other animal. 

  • That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, usually of the male, or upon the chin, or upon both. 

  • A graphic element that shows the maxima and minima in a box plot. 

  • A hair of the beard. 

  • Spreaders from the bows to spread the bowsprit shrouds. 

How often have the words near miss and whisker occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )