come within a whisker of (doing) something

whisker | American Dictionary

whisker
noun[ C ]
us/ˈhwɪs·kər, ˈwɪs-/
one of the long, stiff hairs that grow near the mouth of a cat, mouse, or other mammal:
The cat carefully cleaned the milk off its whiskers.

Examples of whisker

whisker
The incumbent favored ' ' nicely plaited ruffles ' ' and cologne on his whiskers, for example.
Points beyond these whiskers are plotted as circles.
The whiskers are passive and rely upon the motion of the robot in order to scan the surface profile of touched objects.
The whiskers give 1.5 times the interquartile range.
Under these conditions tactile whiskers may be a better solution for providing close proximity sensing.
By recording the deflection of the whiskers as they slide over external objects sequences of surface points can be determined.
The whole face, including the whiskers, was shaved.
Boxplots without whiskers indicate small variance.
Electrical signals were sent to parts of the brain and provided a virtual contact to the animal's whiskers, showing them which way the operator wished them to go.
Insects and crustaceans employ whiskers and antennae as a place to position their exteroceptors outside their tough exoskeletons so that they can sense the surrounding environment.
The entry tiger, for example, is accompanied by a small picture on which you can move about for further detail of the body parts of the animal (like whiskers).
He finished his meal, wiped his whiskers and dived again for another one.
From the
Hansard archive