Bristle

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbrɪs.É™l/
• Rhymes: -ɪsÉ™l

Origin

From Middle English bristil, brustel, diminutive of brust, from Old English byrst, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (compare Dutch borstel, German Borste ‘boar's bristle’, Icelandic burst), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥stís (compare Middle Irish brostaim ‘I goad, spur’, Latin fastīgium ‘top’, Polish barszcz ‘hogweed’), equivalent to brust + -le.

Full definition of bristle

Noun

1. A stiff or coarse hair.
2. The hair or straws that make up a brush, broom, or similar item.

Derived terms

• bristlet

Verb

1. To rise or stand erect, like bristles.
• Sir Walter ScottHis hair did bristle upon his head.
2. To appear as if covered with bristles; to have standing, thick and erect, like bristles.
• Thackeraythe hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets
• Macaulayports bristling with thousands of masts
3. To be on one's guard or raise one's defenses; to react with fear, suspicion, or distance.
• ShakespeareNow for the bare-picked bone of majesty
  Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest.
• 2013-06-22, Engineers of a different kind, Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
4. The employees bristled at the prospect of working through the holidays.
5. To fix a bristle to.to bristle a thread

Derived terms

• bristling

Anagrams

• blister
• riblets