Republicans, meanwhile, bristle with anger as they attempt to defend against the flood of new information.
Of course there are those who bristle at such neologisms—the scolds, the conservative prescriptivists, the SNOOTs.
Americans tend to bristle even at self-censorship; we are reluctant to declare that we simply are not going to look at something.
In fact, so complete was his recovery, he later allowed himself to bristle at comparisons with Spitzer.
And they bristle too at the notion that they had some kind of personal enmity toward the president.
It is not my purpose to bristle up and strike back at these critics of American behavior.
Hill began to bristle and to look around in search of the one who had spoken.
The hempen string began to bristle like the hair of one electrified.
Unless he does this, the South will bristle with bayonets in vain.
At last I found myself looking down into that fearsome gap, and my very hair did bristle as I peered.
Old English byrst "bristle," with metathesis of -r-, from Proto-Germanic *bursti- (cf. Middle Dutch borstel, German borste), from PIE *bhrsti- from root *bhars- "point, bristle" (cf. Sanskrit bhrstih "point, spike"). With -el, diminutive suffix.
c.1200 (implied in past participle adjective bristled) "set or covered with bristles," from bristle (n.). Meaning "become angry or excited" is 1540s, from the way animals show fight. Related: Bristling.
