[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

bristly \bris"tly\, a.
   thick set with bristles, or with hairs resembling bristles;
   rough.
   1913 webster

         the leaves of the black mulberry are somewhat bristly.
                                                  --bacon.
   1913 webster

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

bristly
     adj 1: very irritable; "bristly exchanges between the white house
            and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful";
            "witty and waspish about his colleagues" syn: prickly,
             splenetic, waspish
     2: having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines
        or thorns or setae etc.; "a horse with a short bristly
        mane"; "bristly shrubs"; "burred fruits"; "setaceous
        whiskers" syn: barbed, barbellate, briary, briery,
         bristled, burred, burry, prickly, setose, setaceous,
         spiny, thorny
see also:
prickly splenetic waspish barbed barbellate briary 
briery bristled burred burry setose 
setaceous spiny thorny 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

41 moby thesaurus words for "bristly":
   acanaceous, aculeolate, barbellate, brambly, briery, bristled,
   bristling, bushy, cirrose, fleecy, flocculent, furry, fuzzy,
   glochidiate, hairy, hirsute, hispid, lanate, matted, muricate,
   pilose, pricking, prickly, pricky, pubescent, setaceous, setose,
   setous, shagged, shaggy, stinging, strigal, strigate, strigose,
   stubbled, stubbly, studded, thistly, thorny, unshorn, woolly

Bristly >> B Words
Bristly, definition of term: Bristly
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