bristle
/ˈbɹɪsəl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms bristles bristling bristled
- noun A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant. “the bristles of a pig”
- noun A chaeta: an analogous filament on arthropods, annelids, or other animals.
- 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.
- verb (intransitive) To rise or stand erect, like bristles. “His hair began to bristle with anger when the subject was mentioned.”
- verb (intransitive, usually with with) To abound, to be covered with, or to have an abundance of, something, especially something jutting out.
- verb (intransitive, usually with at or with) 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.”
- verb (transitive, now rare or obsolete) To make (something) rise or stand erect, like bristles.
- verb (transitive, uncommon) To cause (someone) to be on one's guard or raise one's defenses. “Your blatant attitude always bristles me.”
- verb (rare) To fix a bristle or bristles to. “to bristle a thread”
- proper noun (slang, humorous) Bristol, England (in imitation of the local dialect)
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English bristil, bristel, brustel, from Old English bristl, byrst, *brystl, *byrstel, from Proto-West Germanic *burstilu, diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (compare Dutch borstel, German Borste (“boar's bristle”), Icelandic burst), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥stís (compare Middle Irish brostaid (“to goad, spur”), Latin fastīgium (“top”), Polish barszcz (“hogweed”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A short, stiff, coarse hair, as on the back of swine.
- noun A stiff, sharp, roundish hair. Gray.
- verb 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.
- verb To fix a bristle to; as, to bristle a thread.
Etymology [OE. bristel, brustel, AS. bristl, byrst; akin to D. borstel, OHG. burst, G. borste, Icel. burst, Sw. borst, and to Skr. bh edge, point, and prob, L. fastigium extremity, Gr. brush, burr, perh. to brad. sq. root96.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bristle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details