Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Covered with short, stiff hairs or bristles: Describing a surface that has many small, stiff, and often rough hairs or hair-like projections.
   • Resembling a bristle in texture; stiff and prickly: Having a quality that is sharp, rough, or irritating to the touch.
   • Irritable or easily angered: Used figuratively to describe a person's temperament as short-tempered, prickly, or prone to argument.

Examples of Usage

• Literal (Covered with bristles):
  • The bristly hair on the boar's back stood upright when it was threatened.
  • He rubbed his hand against the bristly surface of the coconut.
• Figurative (Irritable):
  • The manager was in a bristly mood after the difficult meeting.
  • Their conversation became bristly when politics was mentioned.

Advanced Usage

• "bristly with": Used to indicate being full of or covered by something, often problems or difficulties.
  • The path to an agreement was bristly with complications.
• "bristly demeanor/manner": Describes an unfriendly, defensive, or aggressive way of behaving.
  • The critic was known for his bristly demeanor during interviews.

Variants and Related Words

• Bristle (noun): A short, stiff hair, typically on an animal or as part of a brush.
  • The brush was made from boar bristles.
• Bristle (verb): To react with anger or defensiveness; also, to have hairs stand upright.
  • She bristled at the suggestion that she was wrong.
• Bristled (adjective): Equipped with or covered in bristles.
  • The bristled head of a toothbrush.

Synonyms

• Literal: Barbed, prickly, spiny, setaceous, thorny, burred.
• Figurative (Irritable): Prickly, irritable, testy, cantankerous, waspish, splenetic.

Related Phrases

• "bristly exchange": A conversation or argument characterized by sharp, angry, or defensive remarks.
  • The debate was marked by a series of bristly exchanges.
• "bristly with indignation": Showing clear signs of anger or offense.
  • He was bristly with indignation at the false accusation.

Notes on Meaning

• The primary meaning is physical, relating to texture. The figurative meaning describing temperament derives from the idea of being "prickly" or easily provoked, much like an animal raising its bristles when threatened.
• Often used to describe textures that are unpleasant or rough to touch, such as certain fabrics, animal coats, or unshaven facial hair.

Adjective

1. having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.
   • a horse with a short bristly mane
   • bristly shrubs
   • burred fruits
   • setaceous whiskers
2. very irritable
   • bristly exchanges between the White House and the press
   • he became prickly and spiteful
   • witty and waspish about his colleagues