bristled

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Related to bristled: jointed

bris·tle

(brĭs′əl)

1. A stiff hair.

2. A stiff hairlike structure: the bristles of a wire brush.

v. bris·tled, bris·tling, bris·tles

v.intr.

1. To stand stiffly on end like bristles: The hair on the dog's neck bristled.

2. To raise the bristles: The cat bristled at the sight of the large dog.

3. To react in an angry or offended manner: The author bristled at the suggestion of plagiarism.

4. To be covered or thick with or as if with bristles: The path bristled with thorns.

v.tr.

1. To cause to stand erect like bristles; stiffen.

2. To furnish or supply with bristles.

3. To make bristly; ruffle.

[Middle English bristel, probably from Old English *byrstel, from byrst, bristle.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Adj.

bristled - having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.; "a horse with a short bristly mane"; "bristly shrubs"; "burred fruits"; "setaceous whiskers"

barbellate, briary, briery, setaceous, setose, burred, burry, prickly, barbed, spiny, thorny, bristly

armed - (used of plants and animals) furnished with bristles and thorns

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References in classic literature ?

This was her day--and it came not often--when manes bristled, and fang smote fang or ripped and tore the yielding flesh, all for the possession of her.

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Here and there savage dogs rushed upon him, but he bristled his neck-hair and snarled (for he was learning fast), and they let him go his way unmolested.

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The emphasis was helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside.