Library / English Dictionary

BRISTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A stiff hair

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("bristle" is a kind of...):

hair (a filamentous projection or process on an organism)

Derivation:

bristle (rise up as in fear)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A stiff fiber (coarse hair or filament); natural or synthetic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bristle" is a kind of...):

fiber; fibre (a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn)

Holonyms ("bristle" is a part of...):

brush (an implement that has hairs or bristles firmly set into a handle)

Derivation:

bristly (having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

React in an offended or angry manner

Example:

He bristled at her suggestion that he should teach her how to use the program

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "bristle" is one way to...):

react; respond (show a response or a reaction to something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Rise up as in fear

Example:

It was a sight to make one's hair uprise!

Synonyms:

bristle; stand up; uprise

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

bristle (a stiff hair)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Have or be thickly covered with or as if with bristles

Example:

bristling leaves

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "bristle" is one way to...):

feature; have (have as a feature)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Be in a state of movement or action

Example:

The garden bristled with toddlers

Synonyms:

abound; bristle; burst

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "bristle" is one way to...):

feature; have (have as a feature)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

The streets bristle with crowds

Credits

 Context examples: 

But some amazing experience had disturbed his native composure and left its traces in his bristling hair, his flushed, angry cheeks, and his flurried, excited manner.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was an involuntary bristling on his part, the physical state that in the past had always accompanied the mental state produced in him by Lip-lip's bullying and persecution.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The same short, broad figure, the same heavy shoulders, the same forward hang of the arms, the same bristling beard merging itself in the hairy chest.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Floating on with closed eyes and muffled ears, you neither see the rocks bristling not far off in the bed of the flood, nor hear the breakers boil at their base.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

His short dark hair seemed to bristle upwards, his eyes glowed with the intensity of his passion, and his face expressed a malignity of hatred which neither the death of his enemy nor the lapse of years could mitigate.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He said, he could discover great holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several colours altogether disagreeable: although I must beg leave to say for myself, that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sunburnt by all my travels.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Of course, in common speech with the sailors and hunters, it sometimes fairly bristled with errors, which was due to the vernacular itself; but in the few words he had held with me it had been clear and correct.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting, his mane bristling in recurrent waves.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I felt my hair rise like bristles on the back of my neck, and my heart seemed to stand still.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Far away I could catch glimpses of the old grey building with its bristling Tudor chimneys, but the drive ran through a dense shrubbery, and I saw no more of my man.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)