PRICKLY
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”
bristly, prickly, splenetic, waspish
(adjective) very irritable; “bristly exchanges between the White House and the press”; “he became prickly and spiteful”; “witty and waspish about his colleagues”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Adjective
prickly (comparative pricklier, superlative prickliest)
Covered with sharp points.
Easily irritated.
Difficult; complicated; (figuratively) hairy or thorny.
Synonyms
• (covered with sharp points): thorny, spiny
Adverb
prickly (comparative more prickly, superlative most prickly)
In a prickly manner.
Noun
prickly (plural pricklies)
(colloquial) Something that gives a pricking sensation; a sharp object.
Source: Wiktionary
Prick"ly, a.
Definition: Full of sharp points or prickles; armed or covered with
prickles; as, a prickly shrub. Prickly ash (Bot.), a prickly shrub
(Xanthoxylum Americanum) with yellowish flowers appearing with the
leaves. All parts of the plant are pungent and aromatic. The southern
species is X. Carolinianum. Gray.
– Prickly heat (Med.), a noncontagious cutaneous eruption of red
pimples, attended with intense itching and tingling of the parts
affected. It is due to inflammation of the sweat glands, and is often
brought on by overheating the skin in hot weather.
– Prickly pear (Bot.), a name given to several plants of the
cactaceous genus Opuntia, American plants consisting of fleshy,
leafless, usually flattened, and often prickly joints inserted upon
each other. The sessile flowers have many petals and numerous
stamens. The edible fruit is a large pear-shaped berry containing
many flattish seeds. The common species of the Northern Atlantic
States is Opuntia vulgaris. In the South and West are many others,
and in tropical America more than a hundred more. O. vulgaris, O.
Ficus-Indica, and O. Tuna are abundantly introduced in the
Mediterranean region, and O. Dillenii has become common in India.
– Prickly pole (Bot.), a West Indian palm (Bactris Plumierana), the
slender trunk of which bears many rings of long black prickles.
– Prickly withe (Bot.), a West Indian cactaceous plant (Cereus
triangularis) having prickly, slender, climbing, triangular stems.
– Prickly rat (Zoöl.), any one of several species of South American
burrowing rodents belonging to Ctenomys and allied genera. The hair
is usually intermingled with sharp spines.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition