bristle
Americannoun
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bristles
plural
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one of the short, stiff, coarse hairs of certain animals, especially hogs, used extensively in making brushes.
-
anything resembling these hairs.
verb (used without object)
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bristles,
present (3rd person singular)
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bristled,
past participle, past
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bristling
present participle
-
to stand or rise stiffly, like bristles.
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to erect the bristles, as an irritated animal (often followed byup ).
The hog bristled up.
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to become rigid with anger or irritation.
The man bristled when I asked him to move.
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to be thickly set or filled with something suggestive of bristles.
The plain bristled with bayonets. The project bristled with difficulties.
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to be visibly roused or stirred (usually followed byup ).
verb (used with object)
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bristles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bristled,
past participle, past
-
bristling
present participle
-
to erect like bristles.
The rooster bristled his crest.
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to furnish with a bristle or bristles.
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to make bristly.
noun
-
any short stiff hair of an animal or plant
-
something resembling these hair
toothbrush bristle
verb
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to stand up or cause to stand up like bristles
the angry cat's fur bristled
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to show anger, indignation, etc
she bristled at the suggestion
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(intr) to be thickly covered or set
the target bristled with arrows
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(intr) to be in a state of agitation or movement
the office was bristling with activity
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(tr) to provide with a bristle or bristles
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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bristlelessadjective
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bristlelikeadjective
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bristlyadjective
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nonbristledadjective
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unbristledadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bristlesimple
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bristlessimple
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have bristledperfect
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has bristledperfect
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am bristlingprogressive
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are bristlingprogressive
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is bristlingprogressive
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have been bristlingperfect progressive
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has been bristlingperfect progressive
Past
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bristledsimple
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had bristledperfect
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was bristlingprogressive
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were bristlingprogressive
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had been bristlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bristle
before 1000; Middle English bristel, equivalent to brist ( Old English byrst bristle, cognate with German Borste, Old Norse burst ) + -el diminutive suffix
Explanation
A bristle is a stiff hair — the kind men shave off their face or the kind badgers have all over. Bristle also means to get angry. Tell an animal rights activist you use a badger's bristle shaving brush and you'll get the idea. The emotional meaning of to bristle comes from the fact that most animal bristles used by man are so-called erectile hairs — the ones that stand up on the neck or along the back of animal when it's angry or surprised. A common word associated with bristle is hackle, another name for such erectile animal hairs. Thus the saying "to get one's hackles up," which is pretty much identical to bristling.
Vocabulary lists containing bristle
Instead of "Said": Vexed Verbiage to Express Anger
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"Of Mice and Men"
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Not in my favor: I cannot abide hippie culture, bristle at the slightest whiff of woo woo and balk reflexively at the phrase “loving kindness,” which immediately calls to mind the worst person I know.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
And if interviewers bristle at questions or dodge them, that could be a red flag.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 3, 2026
Many residents are thrilled by the promising tool, but others bristle at the idea of manipulating nature.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
Most belonged to groups such as marine bristle worms, crustaceans, and mollusks, including snails and mussels.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026
Twice a day, she lathered his face with a stiff bristle brush and with a straight razor expertly scraped the dent in his chin and the narrow space between his nose and his upper lip.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
The White House also bristles at Amodei's repeated warnings about the dangers of AI -- including the impact on jobs -- and his calls to regulate its deployment like airlines or banks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Alito bristles at the retirement speculation, some of the people close to him say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
We gather her keen interest isn’t entirely touristy but also, because Hinds is so good, that his wisecracks about religion — which she bristles at — have a basis in something personal, too.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
Elephants are born with about 1,000 of these bristles, lead author Andrew Schulz told AFP, many of them anchored in the trunk's wrinkles to act like feelers and help the animals assess their surroundings.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
Other mutant flies had forked bristles; sable-colored bodies; curved legs; bent, batlike wings; disjointed abdomens; deformed eyes—a Halloween’s parade of oddballs.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Under Moreno, the city bristled, the “of Anaheim” part of “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” had disappeared.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
The White House has also bristled at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's repeated warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence -- including the impact on jobs.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Aronowitz has bristled at this sort of criticism.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
The deal will reshape France’s telecom sector, cutting the number of major operators from four to three—a level that some regulators have previously bristled at, fearing it could lead to higher prices for consumers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
The small hairs on his neck bristled, but he reasoned with himself: many land-grant people and white ranchers used that road too.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
Jasper Wiese had swept past Alex Coles with a run bristling with evil intent.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Morgan, who was working at Bennigan’s when Texas Roadhouse recruited him in 1997, remembers bristling at the buy-in—and having to borrow from his parents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
The top is divided into 10-by-10 grids bristling with small colorful flags designating where the plants should be placed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026
Or Santos bristling at her new boss’s insistence on clearing her charting backlog while tending cranky patients.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2026
“Hey,” said a man standing nearby, whose big dog dæmon was bristling.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
