bristle
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
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”)).
Inflected forms:
form: bristles
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bristles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bristling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bristled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bristled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.
pos: noun
examples: the bristles of a pig
gloss: A chaeta: an analogous filament on arthropods, annelids, or other animals.
pos: noun
gloss: The hairs or other filaments that make up a brush, broom, or similar item, typically made from plant cellulose, animal hairs, or synthetic polymers.
pos: noun
gloss: To rise or stand erect, like bristles.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
His hair did bristle upon his head.
He sat down with his elbows upon the desk, his gorilla hands clasped together, his beard bristling forward, and his big grey eyes, half-covered by his drooping lids, fixed benignly upon me.
gloss: To abound, to be covered with, or to have an abundance of, something, especially something jutting out.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
usually
examples: the hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets
ports bristling with thousands of masts
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.
gloss: To be on one's guard or raise one's defenses; to react with fear, suspicion, or distance.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
usually
examples: The employees bristled at the prospect of working through the holidays.
Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty / Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest.
Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
If only the industry could be honest and explain why it has been forced, owing to government policies, to increase fares over the quarter century since privatisation. Instead, it is defensive and clearly bristles with annoyance when someone merely states the facts.
gloss: To make (something) rise or stand erect, like bristles.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
obsolete
transitive
examples: 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.
As for the Icnumon, hee hath but onely chāged his name;now called the Rat of Nilus.A beaſt particular to Ægypt,about the bigneſſe of a Cat, and as cleanly: ſnowted like a Ferret , but that blacke and without long haire,ſharpe tootht,round eard,ſhort legd,long taild (being thicke where it ioynes to the body,and ſpinie at the end)his haire ſharpe, hard,and branded, briſtling it vp when angry, and then will flye vpon a maſtiffe.
As,when(at Cock-pit)two old Cocks doe fight,
(Briſtling their Plumes,&(red with rage)do ſmite […]
gloss: To cause (someone) to be on one's guard or raise one's defenses.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
uncommon
examples: Your blatant attitude always bristles me.
Mr. 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. I have—I wish you could talk to some of my farm workers.
I scowl. “Pretty sure women are not explicitly forbidden in my contract.”
He lowers his voice. “No, but it’s good to be cautious when you're trying to rehab a public image.”
Something about the comment bristles me. “Hey, it’s not my image. I’ve always been good.”
When we take on a new name, it can be hard for other people to get used to. […] But if someone new in my life calls me that old name, it bristles me. That’s not who I am.
‘No. I don’t believe in wasting my money on crap like that.’
‘It’s not your money, it’s mine.’ I can see the comment bristles him; he feels inadequate: his daughter is wealthier than he’s ever been.
gloss: To fix a bristle or bristles to.
pos: verb
tags: rare
examples: to bristle a thread
For quotations using this term, see Citations:bristle.
Derived words: abristle
basal bristle
bristlebill
bristlebird
bristlebot
bristle brush
bristlecone
bristlefront
bristlegrass
bristlehead
bristleless
bristlelike
bristle moss
bristlemouth
bristler
bristle snail
bristlet
bristle-tail
bristletail
bristleworm
bristle worm
bristly
nanobristle
rebristle
yellow bristle grass
bristle up
bristling
Translations:
lang: Czech
word: naježit se
lang: Dutch
word: recht overeind staan
lang: Dutch
word: stekelig reageren
lang: Polish
word: jeżyć się
lang: Polish
word: zjeżyć się
lang: Spanish
word: ponerse a la defensiva
lang: Swedish
word: resa
lang: Swedish
word: stå på ända
lang: Swedish
word: resa ragg
lang: Swedish
word: lystra
lang: Swedish
word: skjuta rygg