Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use bristle in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Bristle means a stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant. Example: “His hair began to bristle with anger when the subject was mentioned.”

Examples of bristle by meaning

nounA stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.

  • the bristles of a pig

verbTo 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.
  • The soldier’s body would bristle with tension before a battle.

verbTo abound, to be covered with, or to have an abundance of, something, especially something jutting out.

  • Kieran Tierney did not want to risk a challenge on Pulisic, who darted on to the ball with far greater purpose, and the dink over Emi Martínez bristled with composure.2020 August 1, David Hytner, “Aubameyang at the double as Arsenal turn tables on Chelsea to win FA Cup”, in The Guardian

verbTo 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.
  • Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
  • Instead, it is defensive and clearly bristles with annoyance when someone merely states the facts.2021 May 5, Barry Doe, “The Independent has a better grasp than GWR's spokesman”, in RAIL, number 930, page 58

verbTo cause (someone) to be on one's guard or raise one's defenses.

  • Your blatant attitude always bristles me.
  • 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.1996, Guest Worker Programs: […], United States Government Publishing Office, page 116

verbTo fix a bristle or bristles to.

  • to bristle a thread
  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:bristle.

More sentences with bristle

  • Our vegan-friendly shaving brush is made with synthetic bristles instead of badger hair.From the entry vegan
  • He bristled up when they made a joke about his heritage.From the entry bristle up
  • He bristled and sat there, motionless, as if ramrodded.From the entry ramrod
  • It’s klyukva, or “cranberry.” Reviews of “Black Widow” bristle with that term.2021 July 15, Fred Weir, “Russians say Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ is ‘klyukva.’ That’s not flattering.”, in The Christian Science Monitor…. From the entry moviegoer
  • My normal reaction to authoritah is to bristle, but arguments can wait.2018, Russ Linton, Ashes (Crimson Son), volume 3, →ISBN, unnumbered page. From the entry authoritah
  • Occasionally, hairs, scales, or bristles may also be present on the receptacle.2015, Robert H. Mohlenbrock, “Descriptions and Illustrations”, in Flowering Plants: Asteraceae, Part I (The Illustrated Flora of…. From the entry receptacle
  • Jake bristled at the insinuation that he never visited his father unless he wanted something.2014, Jami Davenport, Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?, →ISBN. From the entry rub someone's face in
  • The ferrule is the part of the brush that connects the bristles to the handle.2012, Susan Crabtree, Peter Beudert, “The Painting Tools of Scenic Artistry”, in Scenic Art for the Theatre, 3rd edition, Waltham, Mass.…. From the entry ferrule
  • I bridled and bristled, nettled and rankled, then drinkled and drankled some more.2009, Claire Kilroy, All Names Have Been Changed. From the entry drinkle
  • It might seem that a Whisker Biscuit's nylon bristles, which surround the shaft, would affect arrow flight.2004 August, Scott Bestul, “The No-Nonsense Bow”, in Field & Stream, unnumbered page. From the entry whisker biscuit
  • Greebo, hiccuping occasionally, oozed into his accustomed place among the bristles of Nanny’s broomstick.2002, Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad, page 97. From the entry broomstick
  • I took the feather from him and ran my hand down the soft, wet bristles.2000, Dandi Daley Mackall, Horsefeathers!, page 82. From the entry horsefeather
  • Or if every morning you had to contend with the rispid memory of decades of bristles.2000 March 31, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, “Eight”, in Anything But Love, Houston: Arte Público Press, page 37. From the entry rispid
  • Slash'n'sideburn pop is what you get when Manc yoof grows up angry and facially bristling.1992, New Musical Express. From the entry yoof
  • For nonflossers, a newly developed brush with rotating bristle groups has proven helpful.1989, Thomas G. Wilson, Dental Maintenance for Patients with Periodontal Diseases, page 53. From the entry nonflosser
  • These prefatory and postfatory pages bristle with insights, but they unfortunately tend to be noisy and vituperative.1963, Hugues Leblanc, “The Myth of Simplicity; Problems of Scientific Philosophy. By Mario Bunge. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall…. From the entry postfatory
  • Sensillus a clavigerous bristle , only club of which projects beyond border of pteromorphae.1956, Leonard Dale Tuthill, Psyllidae of Pacific Entomological Survey, page 141. From the entry clavigerous
  • Most cacti classed as cholla are a bristling mass of needle-like, spines.1941, American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Magazine, Incorporated, Natural History, The American Museum of Natural History…. From the entry superferocious
  • Bradly came bristling to the lagoon the following afternoon, in a swither of alarm and expectation.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 49. From the entry swither
  • Alarm brought Bradly over to glare down at Podson, bristling up his beard at him.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 81. From the entry ill-ease
  • With bared fangs and bristling necks they advanced slowly toward him, with deep-throated, ominous growls.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 196. From the entry bull
  • Miles of exurbs bristle with hundreds—no, thousands—of apartment towers.2023 July 7, Paul Salopek, “China's Hinge”, in National Geographic, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2023. From the entry exurb
  • His criticism of Inés makes him bristle.2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 28, in The Childhood of Jesus, London: Harvill Secker, page 251. From the entry temper
  • Even as he worked a soft grey clump from the bristles of a dustbrush, Sucks to you, Boo, thought Tom.2012, Michelle de Kretser, The Lost Dog, page 168. From the entry dustbrush
  • As the bristles met her front teeth, she savored the mint flavor on her tongue like peppermint candy.2012, Linda Joffe Hull, The Big Bang, page 13. From the entry Colgate
  • Their hungers teased, their eyeballs bristled with deep craving.2012, Khalid Patel, Hollow Shotguns. From the entry lickery
  • That was down to the introduction of nylon bristles.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 77. From the entry brush-making
  • The penile mishaps (one involving a bristled toothbrush), severings (one involves hungry ducks) and surgeries cited by Ms.2008 April 7, Janet Maslin, “A Sex Researcher Walks Into a Lab, and Then Things Start to Get Comical”, in The New York Times, archived…. From the entry undermine

Meaning of bristle

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

Full definition of bristle

Questions about bristle in a sentence

How do you use bristle in a sentence?
Bristle is used as a noun and verb. For example: “His hair began to bristle with anger when the subject was mentioned.”
What is a short sentence with bristle?
“to bristle a thread”
What does bristle mean?
Bristle means a stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bristle (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use bristle in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/bristle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.