BRISTLED

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

(adjective) 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”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

bristled

simple past tense and past participle of bristle

Adjective

bristled (comparative more bristled, superlative most bristled)

Having bristles

Anagrams

• birdlets, bridlest, driblets, streblid

Source: Wiktionary


BRISTLE

Bris"tle, n. Etym: [OE. bristel, brustel, AS. bristl, byrst; akin to D. borstel, OHG. burst, G. borste, Icel. burst, Sw. borst, and to Skr. bh edge, point, and prob, L. fastigium extremity, Gr. brush, burr, perh. to brad. sq. root96.]

1. A short, stiff, coarse hair, as on the back of swine.

2. (Bot.)

Definition: A stiff, sharp, roundish hair. Gray.

Bris"tle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bristled; p. pr. & vb. n. Bristling.]

1. To erect the bristles of; to cause to stand up, as the bristles of an angry hog; -- sometimes with up. Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest. Shak. Boy, bristle thy courage up. Shak.

2. To fix a bristle to; as, to bristle a thread.

Bris"tle, v. i.

1. To rise or stand erect, like bristles. His hair did bristle upon his head. Sir W. Scott.

2. To appear as if covered with bristles; to have standing, thick and erect, like bristles. The hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets. Thackeray. Ports bristling with thousands of masts. Macaulay.

3. To show deflance or indignation. To bristle up, to show anger or deflance.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

6 November 2024

SEARCHINGLY

(adverb) in a searching manner; “‘Are you really happy with him,’ asked her mother, gazing at Vera searchingly”


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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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