Bristle
['brɪs(ə)l] or ['brɪsl]
Definition
(noun.) a stiff hair.
(noun.) a stiff fiber (coarse hair or filament); natural or synthetic.
(verb.) react in an offended or angry manner; 'He bristled at her suggestion that he should teach her how to use the program'.
(verb.) rise up as in fear; 'The dog's fur bristled'; 'It was a sight to make one's hair uprise!'.
(verb.) have or be thickly covered with or as if with bristles; 'bristling leaves'.
Checked by Kathy--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A short, stiff, coarse hair, as on the back of swine.
(n.) A stiff, sharp, roundish hair.
(v. t.) To erect the bristles of; to cause to stand up, as the bristles of an angry hog; -- sometimes with up.
(v. t.) To fix a bristle to; as, to bristle a thread.
(v. i.) To rise or stand erect, like bristles.
(v. i.) To appear as if covered with bristles; to have standing, thick and erect, like bristles.
(v. i.) To show defiance or indignation.
Edited by Donnie
Definition
n. a short stiff hair as of swine.—v.i. to stand erect as bristles.—v.t. to cover as with bristles: to make bristly:—pr.p. bris′tling; pa.p. brist′led.—adj. Bristled (bris′ld) furnished with bristles.—n. Brist′liness.—adj. Brist′ly set with bristles: rough.—To set up one's bristles to show temper.
Typist: Louis
Examples
- Bedroom candlesticks bristle on the distant table by the door, and cousins yawn on ottomans. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- He was of a sickly color, and his thin, sandy hair seemed to bristle up with the intensity of his emotion. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Those noises at night make the hair on my head bristle. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Fasten a stiff bristle to a tuning fork by means of wax, allowing the end of the point to rest lightly upon a piece of smoked glass. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- He was a brave man, but he had felt the short hairs bristle upon the nape of his neck when that uncanny cry rose upon the air. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- As in hand-making and before subjected to the action of the machine, the bristles are sorted as to length and color. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Oh, on certain sides Louisa bristles with perceptions. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- The other cylinder was covered with brushes, and so placed that the tips of the bristles of these brushes touched the saw-teeth. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- These generally consist of long bristles, capable of movement and easily excited. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- In this, brush blocks of varying sizes, but of the same pattern, are bored by the same machine which receives the bristles, and the tufts are inserted as fast as the holes are bored. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The finer quality of bristles goes to the brushmakers, and the balance is used by upholsterers for mixing with horse hair. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- A comb-shaped slitted plate in the machine has then each slit filled with bristles, sufficient in number to form a single tuft. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Under the clear rays of the Arizona moon lay Powell, his body fairly bristling with the hostile arrows of the braves. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- They had, therefore, to meet the shock standing or kneeling behind a bristling wall of pikes or bayonets. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- A long room with three long rows of desks, and six of forms, and bristling all round with pegs for hats and slates. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- With his savage eyes and bristling moustache he was wonderfully like a tiger himself. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- He was a great, tall, bristling Orson of a fellow, full six feet and some inches in his stockings, and arrayed in a red flannel hunting-shirt. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Sir,' returns Twemlow, with his wristbands bristling a little, 'YOU repeat the word; I repeat the word. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He was prematurely bald on the top of his head, and had bushy black eyebrows that wouldn't lie down but stood up bristling. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- It was that of a bearded man, but the beard was short and bristled forward in a way very different from that of the captain. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Paul's hair was shorn close as raven down, or I think it would have bristled on his head. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- It bristled from her so palpably that one might almost have cut it with a sword. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Collar and shirt bore the grime of a long journey, and the hair bristled unkempt from the well-shaped head. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
Checked by Barry