bristlier; bristliest
1
a
: thickly set with bristles
a bristly shrub
b
: consisting of or resembling bristles
a bristly mustache
2
: inclined to or showing aggressiveness or anger
a bristly temperament
Examples of bristly in a Sentence
although pigs look hairless, they're actually bristly creatures
Recent Examples on the Web
During the summer ski jumping season when competitors slide down ceramic or porcelain tracks and land on bristly plastic mats, the team tried to adjust to the new ski suit dimensions.
—
Brian Melley, Chicago Tribune, 23 Jan. 2026
Their typically bristly fur is peppered with shades of brown and gray, with a white underbelly.
—Marina Watts, PEOPLE, 16 Jan. 2026
And my father—lovable but imposing, a strapping six feet three inches tall with a thick, bristly mustache and a rumbling Sergeant Schultz accent that frightened my friends half to death—loved to tell stories.
—CBS News, 5 Dec. 2025
But that hypothesis, Harland wrote in a bristly 1964 Scientific American article, was not supported by any concrete evidence.
—Laura Poppick
july 22, Literary Hub, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for bristly
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Brian Melley, Chicago Tribune, 23 Jan. 2026
Their typically bristly fur is peppered with shades of brown and gray, with a white underbelly.
—Marina Watts, PEOPLE, 16 Jan. 2026
And my father—lovable but imposing, a strapping six feet three inches tall with a thick, bristly mustache and a rumbling Sergeant Schultz accent that frightened my friends half to death—loved to tell stories.
—CBS News, 5 Dec. 2025
But that hypothesis, Harland wrote in a bristly 1964 Scientific American article, was not supported by any concrete evidence.
—Laura Poppick
july 22, Literary Hub, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for bristly
Cite this Entry
“Bristly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bristly. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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