bristle
Americannoun
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one of the short, stiff, coarse hairs of certain animals, especially hogs, used extensively in making brushes.
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anything resembling these hairs.
verb (used without object)
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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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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
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any short stiff hair of an animal or plant
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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:
Like other predatory bristle worms, this species has jaws built from structural proteins and ions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
Russia's tone, and the attempt to steal the initiative, will make Ukrainians bristle.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 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
He was looking real close at a tiny something, cleaning it off*with a wire bristle brush.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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
Cohen bristles at the term meme stock, telling the Journal it is “a label people use when they don’t want to do the work” on a stock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
She also has been a reporter for more than three decades, including the last 18 years at the Free Press, and bristles at being labeled “fake media.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 14, 2026
And while the ship bristles with hi-tech communications equipment, it's what we can't see that is of most concern.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025
With his giant brush, he polished each tooth on the model, pointing out the proper path of the bristles on the teeth.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
Aronowitz has bristled at this sort of criticism.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
Standout reporting on Colossal has been done by Michael Le Page of the British journal New Scientist, whose most recent article bristled with skeptical takes about the hatchling announcement from established scientists.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
Carrick bristled when the term 'on the beach' was used in relation to a team that is virtually guaranteed to finish third regardless of what happens in their final three matches.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
Networks with multiyear deals in hand have bristled at the move.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Its back bristled with brown hair, and its eyes were wild and angry.
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
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
But in terms of its actual content, the statement was pretty thin gruel, bristling with public relations-style circumlocution and vagueness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 27, 2026
That was the same year as his no-holds-barred memoir Spare and a year after the Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary, both bristling with controversial views on the Royal Family.
From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2026
Messi and his team-mates will head into the final bristling with confidence after another ruthless, high-scoring demolition job that followed on from their 4-0 drubbing of FC Cincinnati in the previous round.
From Barron's ● Nov. 30, 2025
Reed squinted at the clouds, bristling with rain.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
