Forms: 3–5 brustel, 4 brestel, brostle, 4–5 bru-, bristil, brestle, 5 bru-, brystyl(le, burstyll, 6 brisle, bristel(l, 6–7 brissel, brissle, 6– bristle. [ME. brustel, brostle, corresp. to MDu. borstel (burstel), Du. borstel masc., LG. börssel fem.: a deriv. of the simpler form found in OE. byrst, ON. burst fem., OHG. burst masc., borst neut., bursta weak f. (MHG. borst, bürst, m. and n., borste f., Ger. borste f.): see BIRSE. The OTeut. form of the root-syllable is *bors-, pointing to Aryan *bhers-: cf. Skr. bhṛshti·-s ‘point, prong, edge.’ There may have been an OE. *brystl, and OS. *brustil, as direct source of the ME. and LG. forms.]
1. prop. One of the stiff hairs that grow on the back and sides of the hog and wild boar; used extensively by brushmakers, shoemakers, etc.
[a. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 156. Hyre twigu beoð swylce swinen byrst.]
c. 1314. Guy Warw. (A.), 3680. Nought worth the brestel of a swin.
c. 1320. Sir Beves, 747. His Brostles were gret and long.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 148. As bristil bryngiþ in þe breed.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lxxxvii. (1495), 836. Sewetours call them brustyls and sewe therwyth.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 52. Brystylle or brustylle [1499 burstyll], seta.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 16. Couered with bristels or bigge heares.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 3. I will not open my lippes so wide as a brissle may enter.
1605. Camden, Rem., 35. Their brissels more than half shed.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 377. High on their bent Backs erect Their pointed Bristles stare.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 300. Bristles are the stiff, glossy hairs growing on the backs of wild and domesticated swine.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 533. In 1864 our Imports of Bristles were … 2,346,135 lbs.
2. gen. A short, stiff, pointed or prickly hair or similar appendage on other animals; the short hairs on the face of men when thickened and stiffened by shaving.
a. 1300. K. Alis., 6621. The delfyn … rerith up his brustelis grymme.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., II. vi. 71. Peple that … haue brestles aboute their mosell lyke swyne.
1591. Lyly, Endym., II. iii. 29. That chin … shall be filled with brissels as hard as broome.
1611. L. Barry, Ram Alley, II. i. When I was young … And wore the brissel on my upper lip.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Cats bristles [whiskers] have a large solid pith in the middle.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 129. Some of the Annelides possess a third kind of bristles, which M. Savigny terms hooked bristles.
3. In plants: ‘A stiff hair or any slender outgrowth which may be likened to a hog’s bristle’ (Gray); a setaceous appendage or seta.
1731–59. P. Miller, Gardener’s Dict., s.v. Cnicus, Striated seeds … encompassed at the top with a crown of stiff bristles.
1800. E. Darwin, Phytologia, xiv. 351. A panoply of bristles with glandular heads to them.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 228. Some species of Galium are admirably characterized by the bristles of their leaves … being hooked backward or forward.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., 322. Tipped with a stiff short bristle.
4. fig. To set up one’s bristles: to show temper, resistance or pride; to bristle up, ‘put up one’s back.’ To set up any one’s bristles: to arouse such feelings in him. And similar phrases.
1533. Frith, Ep. Chr. Rdr., Wks. (1829), 460. Cruel adversaries which set up their bristles, saying, Why, then, shall we do no good works?
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. liii. 316. Should the Jewes … set vp their bristles against God.
1589. Cooper, Admon., 198. It is good to teach vs to pull downe our brissles, when we waxe proude.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 121. The more she strokes him, the more his bristles seem to rise.
1873. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., IV. iii. 271. The feeling that he is to be lectured … sets a man’s bristles up.
5. attrib. and Comb.: as bristle brush; bristle-armed, -backed, -bearing, -leaved, -like, -pointed, -shaped adjs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 512. Cleanse it lightly with a wing or a bristle brush.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., Pref. D ij. Bristled on the back like Hogs … as if you should say, Bristle-backt.
a. 1845. Hood, Lycus Cent. The bristle-backed boar.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 51/1. Delicate bristle-shaped processes or setæ. Ibid., IV. 404/1. Bristle-like organs.
1848. W. Gardiner, Flora Forfarsh., 204. Bristle-pointed oat.
1863. J. A. Brewer, Flora Surrey, 277. Bristle-leaved Bent-grass … plentiful on Bagshot Heath.
6. Special comb., as bristle-dice, dice into which bristles were fixed to influence their position when thrown; bristle-fern, Trichomanes radicans; bristle-grass, the genus Setaria; bristle-herring, a genus (Chatoessus) of the herring family, in which the last ray of the dorsal fin is prolonged into a whip-like filament; bristle-moss, the genus Orthotrichum; bristleworts sb. pl., Lindley’s name for the order Desvauxiaceæ, small tufted herbs with bristly leaves.
1532. Dice Play (1850), 28. *Bristle dice, be now too gross a practice to be put in use.
1680. Cotton, in Singer, Hist. Cards, 335. This they do by false dice, as … By bristle-dice.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., 195. The Connemara heath, and the *bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall.
1863. Prior, Plant-n., Bristle-fern, from the bristle that projects beyond its receptacle.
1844. Sir W. Hooker, Brit. Flora, II. 57. *Bristle-moss; from the calyptra being generally clothed with hairs.
