Also 5 brustel, brystylle, 7 brizle, brisle, brusle, brussel, -sle, -tle, brystle, 9 (dial.) brisle, brizzle. [f. prec. sb. See also BRUSTLE v.]

1

  I.  intr.

2

  1.  Of hair, quills, etc.: To be, become, or stand, stiff and bristly. To bristle up: to rise like bristles.

3

1480.  Caxton, Ovid’s Met., XIII. cxlv. The heer on my body … is longe and brustelith lyke brustelis.

4

1611.  Florio, Arricciare … ones haire to stare or stand on end, to brizle.

5

1680.  Otway, Hist. Marius, 58. His Beard brussled.

6

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XI. 392. Ere the harvest of the beard began To bristle on the chin.

7

1748.  Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxxvi. My hair bristled up.

8

1824.  W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 105. Mustachios bristling from under his nose.

9

1861.  Holland, Less. Life, i. 16. The man who rises in the morning, with his feelings all bristling like the quills of a hedge-hog.

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  2.  Of animals: To raise the bristles, as a sign of anger or excitement. b. Of persons: To display temper or indignation, to ‘show fight.’ Also with up.

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1549.  Olde, Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. vi. 2. It is not semely that … they should bristle againste their maisters.

12

1611.  Dekker, Roar. Girle, I. Wks. 1873, III. 145. Now is my cue to bristle.

13

1688.  J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 133. The howling of the Dogs he supposed … made her [the sow] come furiously brisling.

14

1830.  Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), II. 160. Without bristling into anger.

15

1837.  Disraeli, Venetia, I. xiii. ‘You shall do no such thing,’ said Mrs. Cadurcis, bristling up.

16

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., I. ix. 160. There now! don’t bristle up like a hedgehog.

17

  3.  To be or become bristly; to be thickly set with (bristly points).

18

1606.  Sir G. Goosecappe, I. ii. in Bullen, Old. Pl. (1884), III. 16. If your French wood brystle, let him alone.

19

1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, IV. ii. 32. Brisling with bushes and overgrown with wood.

20

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., V. ix. (1872), I. 179. All France to the utmost borders bristles with bayonets.

21

1850.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. i. 33. The sea-line … bristles with projecting headlands.

22

  b.  fig., as in to bristle with difficulties.

23

1864.  Burton, Scot Abr., II. i. 105. A Latin preface … bristling with Greek quotations.

24

1875.  Hamerton, Intell. Life, II. i. 51. The fine arts bristle all over with technical difficulties.

25

  12.  To be actively or aggressively astir with.

26

1844.  Kinglake, Eöthen, xv. (1878), 181. Bristling with zeal.

27

1884.  Evangelical Mag., Jan., 36. The old place once more bristled with life.

28

  II.  trans.

29

  5.  To erect stiffly (hair, etc.) like bristles: chiefly in a temper of hostility. Also with up.

30

1595.  Shaks., John, IV. iii. 149. Now … Doth dogged warre bristle his angry crest.

31

1612.  Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T., XXI. ii. So do savage beasts bristle up themselves … when they are in danger of loosing the prey.

32

1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 309. [Bears] champing their teeth, and bristling their hair, in a frightful manner.

33

1793.  W. Roberts, Looker-on, No. 65 (1794), III. 8. Those aspiring asparagus, that bristle up their vegetable spears.

34

1863.  Kingsley, Water-bab., iv. 153. He would … bristle up his feathers, just as a cock-robin would.

35

  b.  fig.

36

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. i. 98. Which makes him … bristle vp The crest of Youth against your Dignity.

37

1598.  Chapman, Iliad, I. 192. Thetis’s son at this stood vex’d, his heart Bristled his bosom.

38

1615.  Adams, Politic. Hunting, Wks. 1861, I. 8. The great one bristles up himself, and conceits himself higher by the head than all the rest.

39

  6.  To furnish with a bristle or bristles; to make bristly.

40

1678.  A. Littleton, Lat. Dict., To bristle a shooe-makers thread. Inseto.

41

1787.  Best, Angling (ed. 2), 37. Your hook should be bristled, that is … fasten a hog’s bristle under the silk.

42

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., cvii. iii. Ice … bristles all the brakes and thorns To yon hard crescent.

43

  7.  To cover as with bristles, to cause to bristle.

44

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1857), I. II. III. iv. 321. Bristle yourself round with cannon.

45

1848.  Lytton, Harold, VI. vi. He would bristle all the land with castles.

46

  8.  To ruffle violently, exasperate.

47

1872.  Blackie, Lays Highl., 40. The black squall … Bristles the soft lake to a Fury.

48