bristled

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.
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
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.
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...
5. (transitive, uncommon) To cause (someone) to be on one's guard or raise one's defenses.
   • Your blatant attitude always bristles me.
6. (rare) To fix a bristle or bristles to.
   • to bristle a thread

See all 10 meanings of bristle