Bristly

a. Also 6 brizlie, brissly, 7 brislie, brisly, bristlie. [f. BRISTLE sb. + -Y¹.]

  1.  Set with bristles or short stiff hairs; setose.

1591.  Percivall, Sp. Dict., Erizado, rough, bristly.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 781. The leaves … are somewhat bristly.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., ii. 98. The Mastful Beech the bristly Chestnut bears.

1718.  Pope, Iliad, XVI. 994. The roaring lion meets a bristly boar.

1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 15. Capsule globose, sessile, bristly.

  b.  fig.

1872.  Daily News, 25 July, 5/5. Those who were for giving France an intelligent and acceptable Republic—not that fierce and chafing thing made up of bristly laws.

1872.  Globe, 5 Aug. That kind of bristly temper which is always on the look-out for causes of offence.

  2.  Of the nature of or like bristles.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 620. On his bow-back he hath a battle set Of bristly pikes.

1645.  G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. 1878, II. 65. If I Have bristlie haire.

1735.  Somerville, Chase, II. 58. Rough bristly Stubbles.

1857.  W. Collins, Dead Secr., I. 143. A ring of bristly iron-grey hair projected like a collar that had got hitched out of its place.

  3.  Thickly set with sharp or defiant points.

1865.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XVI. ii. VI. 152. The Chevalier … scans a little the frowning buttresses, bristly with guns.