Synonyms of bristly

bristly

adjective

ˈbris-lē 

as in shaggy

covered with or as if with hair

although pigs look hairless, they're actually bristly creatures

Synonyms & Similar Words

• shaggy
• hairy
• silky
• woolly
• furred
• hirsute
• brushy
• fluffy
• furry
• unshorn
• cottony
• bearded
• fleecy
• rough
• fuzzy
• stubbly
• whiskered
• bewhiskered
• mustachioed
• stubbled
• downy
• nappy
• linty

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• glabrous
• bald
• hairless
• smooth
• shorn
• shaved
• furless
• shaven
• beardless

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of bristly

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

Called Utah arrays, they are made of hard silicon and look a bit like the bristly part of a hairbrush. — WIRED, 19 Aug. 2022

Thirteen Lives reminds me of Ron Howard's Apollo 13 for its bristly character moments, people caught in extremis. — Joshua Rothkopf, EW.com, 6 Aug. 2022