Word.ws English Dictionary

bristling

Syllables: brist·ling/ˈbɹɪs(ə)lɪŋ/

bristling adjective: having bristles. Also the present participle and gerund of bristle.

Adjective

bristling (comparative more bristling, superlative most bristling)

  1. Having bristles.
  2. Reacting with anger or indignation.
    • Tottenham had hoped to make a statement of real intent against the title pace-setters and while manager Harry Redknapp did not secure the victory he craved, he at least saw his side match United every stride of the way in a game that fizzled out after a bristling start.2011 January 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 0 - 0 Man Utd”, in BBC
  3. (UK, dated) Dressed in effective defensive equipment while not seeking a fight.

Noun

bristling (plural bristlings)

  1. The act of one who bristles.
    • When dogs fight, there are usually preliminaries to the actual combat — snarlings and bristlings and stiff-legged struttings. But White Fang learned to omit these preliminaries.1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 3 (The Gods of the Wild), pages 144–145

Also used as

bristling is also the present participle and gerund of bristle.

bristling is also the alternative form of brisling.

Forms of bristling

Adjective
comparativemore bristling
superlativemost bristling
Noun
pluralbristlings

Words formed from bristling

Phrases with bristling

Questions about bristling

What does bristling mean?
Bristling means having bristles.
What part of speech is bristling?
Bristling can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce bristling?
Bristling is pronounced /ˈbɹɪs(ə)lɪŋ/.

Words near bristling in the dictionary

  1. bristleworm
  2. bristleworms
  3. bristlier
  4. bristliest
  5. bristliness
  6. bristling
  7. bristling up
  8. bristlingly
  9. bristlings
  10. bristly
  11. bristly bellflower

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bristling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bristling.wav.

Cite this entry: “bristling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bristling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.