bristly

American  

[bris-lee] / ˈbrɪs li /

adjective

bristlier, bristliest

1. covered or rough with bristles.

2. like or resembling bristles.

3. easily antagonized; irascible.

   a bristly person with few friends.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bristliness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of bristly

First recorded in 1585–95; bristle + -y ¹

Explanation

Bristly things are spiky or barbed, like a porcupine. When you get an old-fashioned shoe shine, your shoes will be cleaned with a bristly brush. You can describe a certain type of hair as bristly — if it sticks up in tufts and spikes like a hedgehog's quills. A man's beard stubble is bristly too, and so are spiky bushes and scruffy dogs. Figuratively, if you're bristly, you're cranky and easily irritated: "He spoke carefully, trying not to upset his bristly grandfather."

Example Sentences

Advances by Gillette that made everyday shaving less painful—and the rise of bristly adversaries like Stalin and Hitler—drove American politicians into a long period of clean-shavedness.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026

Idris makes his rookie character bristly yet endearing, with the thin-skinned transparency of a generation raised to measure its worth in likes.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 26, 2025

Fury has grown a bristly beard, which he says provides added strength.

From BBC • Dec. 20, 2024

But despite its bristly concept, “The End” largely forgoes any direct images of annihilation, settling into a vast underground bunker with seemingly endless resources well after most humans have perished.

From Salon • Dec. 7, 2024

The old man put the yellow can in his pocket, and he rubbed his bristly white whiskers with his knuckles.

From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck