stubble n : material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds [syn: chaff, husk, shuck, stalk, straw]

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌbəl

Etymology

stuble, from stupula "stalk, straw"

Noun

1. short, coarse hair, especially on a man's face.
2. the short stalks left in a field after crops have been harvested.

Synonyms

• stub
• stump

Translations

Stubble on a person's face is the unshaven hair growth that exists before it becomes long enough to cover the skin and be considered a full beard or moustache. In recent times, electric clippers have rendered stubble growth an easily maintained and fashionable style, as it can lend some men a rugged swarthiness and does not require daily attention. From the late 1920s to the mid-1960s, when a clean-shaven appearance was in vogue in the Western world, it was also known as a five o'clock shadow and a man sporting one was considered to be unattractive, unrefined, and even unclean. In the 1960 US presidential election's televised debates, Richard Nixon's five o'clock shadow was reputed to have counted against him in the voters' perceptions. In the early 1980s, hit television series Miami Vice popularized a stubbly beard (known as "designer stubble"), which had been a German fashion at the beginning of the 16th century, when many young men sat for their portraits sporting a week's stubble growth. At one time, a modified electric razor was sold as the Miami Device, which would trim stubble to simulate one, two, or several days' growth.

The german Punk-Rock band Die Ärzte made a song as a tribute to the stubble called 3-Tage-Bart.

"Stubble" can also refer to any regrowth of shaven hair (e.g. on a woman's legs), or to the short stalks left in a field after crops have been harvested.

See also

• Beard

• List of types of facial hair

Vandyke, afterglow, afterimage, balance, barb, barbel, beard, beaver, bones, bristle, bristles, butt, butt end, candle ends, chaff, culm, deadwood, debris, detritus, dishwater, down, draff, dregs, dust, end, fag end, filings, fossil, garbage, gash, goatee, hogwash, holdover, husks, imperial, leavings, lees, leftovers, odds and ends, offal, offscourings, orts, parings, peach fuzz, potsherds, rags, raspings, refuse, relics, remainder, remains, remnant, residue, residuum, rest, roach, rubbish, ruins, rump, sawdust, scourings, scrap iron, scraps, scum, setula, setule, shadow, shards, shavings, side whiskers, slack, slag, slop, slops, straw, striga, stump, survival, sweepings, swill, tares, trace, tuft, vestige, wastage, waste, waste matter, wastepaper, weeds, whiskers