What does "bristle" mean?
Bristle: (Bot.) A stiff, sharp, roundish hair. Gray.
Additional senses
- 2.To erect the bristles of; to cause to stand up, as the bristles of an angry hog; -- sometimes with up. Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest. Shak. Boy, bristle thy courage up. Shak.
- 3.To fix a bristle to; as, to bristle a thread.
- 4.To rise or stand erect, like bristles. His hair did bristle upon his head. Sir W. Scott.
- 5.To appear as if covered with bristles; to have standing, thick and erect, like bristles. The hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets. Thackeray. Ports bristling with thousands of masts. Macaulay.
- 6.To show deflance or indignation. To bristle up, to show anger or deflance.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00