bristle

Noun

bristle (plural bristles)

1. A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.
   • the bristles of a pig
2. A chaeta: an analogous filament on arthropods, annelids, or other animals.
3. The hairs or other filaments that make up a brush, broom, or similar item, typically made from plant cellulose, animal hairs, or synthetic polymers.

Verb

bristle (third-person singular simple present bristles, present participle bristling, simple past and past participle bristled)

1. (intransitive) To rise or stand erect, like bristles.
   • His hair began to bristle with anger when the subject was mentioned.
   • The cat’s fur bristled when the dog approached.
2. (intransitive, usually) To abound, to be covered with, or to have an abundance of, something, especially something jutting out.
   • the hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
   • ports bristling with thousands of masts1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
3. (intransitive, usually) To be on one's guard or raise one's defenses; to react with fear, suspicion, or distance.
   • The employees bristled at the prospect of working through the holidays.
   • Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty / Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
4. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To make (something) rise or stand erect, like bristles.
   • The lion is let looſe inthe night, and the Earle hauing a night-gowne caſt ouer his ſhirt, with his girdle and ſword, and ſo comming downe the ſtaires into the court, meeteth with the lion briſtling his haire, and roaring.1621, Philippus Camerarius, “Of the heroicall nature of Lions , tormented in ſome Conntreys with Gnats to the death” (chapter II), in Iohn Molle, transl., The Living Librarie, or, Meditations and...
   • As for the Icnumon, hee hath but onely chāged his name;now called the Rat of Nilus.A beaſt particular to Ægypt,about the bigneſſe of a Cat, and as cleanly: ſnowted like a Ferret , but that blacke and without long haire,ſharpe tootht,round eard,ſhort legd,long taild (being thicke where it ioynes to...1627, “The Second Booke”, in A Relation of a Iourney begun An. Dom. 1610. […], 3rd edition, London: […] Ro. Allot, page 101
5. (transitive, uncommon) To cause (someone) to be on one's guard or raise one's defenses.
   • Your blatant attitude always bristles me.
   • Mr. Berman, you know me well enough to know that I—and it just bristles me when I hear agriculture thrown into one lump basket, that we’re a bunch of crooks and treat our workers bad, because that is not the case. I have—I wish you could talk to some of my farm workers.1996, Guest Worker Programs: […], United States Government Publishing Office, page 116
6. (rare) To fix a bristle or bristles to.
   • to bristle a thread
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:bristle.

Proper noun capitalized: Bristle

IPA/ˈbɹɪs.ɫ/

Bristle

1. (humorous, slang) Bristol, England (in imitation of the local dialect)
   • Correct Way to Speak Bristol.1970, Krek Waiter, Peak Bristle