Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bristly
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."
Vocabulary lists containing bristly
The One and Only Ivan
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The Lemonade War
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"The Witches" by Roald Dahl, Chapters 1–5
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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.
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
That is until Rogen, with all the flourish of a magician, unstacked the hedgehog’s bristly back onto the table on front of him.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 6, 2024
What has tusks, bristly hair, and is contaminated with dangerous levels of radiation?
From Science Magazine • Aug. 30, 2023
I liked to feel his new bristly crew cut.
From "Kira-Kira" by Cynthia Kadohata
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.
