bristly

[ bris-lee ]

/ ˈbrɪs li /

covered or rough with bristles.

like or resembling bristles.

easily antagonized; irascible: a bristly person with few friends.

Nearby words

First recorded in 1585–95; bristle + -y¹

Related formsbris·tli·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Hazily I could see scores of the bristly, manlike fish when I opened my eyes and glanced through the walls.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930|Various
He crumpled the assignment memo into a small, hard ball and hurled it at the bristly image of himself in the bar mirror.
Postmark Ganymede|Robert Silverberg
But Dopping was not to be beat He's a bristly old bear at times, but he always was a gentleman.
Our Casualty And Other Stories|James Owen Hannay, AKA George A. Birmingham
It is a slightly-branched plant, from one to four feet high, clothed with stiff, bristly hairs.
Field and Woodland Plants|William S. Furneaux

The fruit is comparatively large, and granulated, but not bristly, and it droops by the bending of the pedicel.
Field and Woodland Plants|William S. Furneaux

adj.

1590s, from bristle (n.) + -y (2). Figurative sense is recorded from 1872. Related: Bristliness.