adj, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   simple past and past participle of bristle form-of, participle, past

Adjective

1. 1
   Having bristles

Adjective

1. 1
   having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc. wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

barbedbarbellatebarbellatebriarybrierybristling

Example

More examples

"The dog's hair bristled when it saw the lion."

Etymology

From Middle English bristled, ibrustled, iburstled, equivalent to bristle + -ed.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.