bristle

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“
Awned having an _awn_, that is, a bristle-like appendage, especially on the glumes of grasses.

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Definitions (33)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun A stiff hair.
  2. noun A stiff hairlike structure: the bristles of a wire brush.
  3. intransitive verb To stand stiffly on end like bristles: The hair on the dog's neck bristled.
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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Rega was sitting on the edge of the moss bank, huddled up in a ball very much like a bristle-back squirrel, her back hunched, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. —  Death Gate Cycle 2 - Elven Star
  • Made of fine bristle, it sweeps over your face lightly dusting loose or pressed powder. —  PRWeb - Daily News Feed
  • His clientele ranges from bristle-faced outdoorsmen to transplanted Southerners who consider the meat something of a delicacy. —  Jossip
  • One wonders, given that and all the rest that CNN had had to squeeze in, why bother at all with allowing Ms Livni to take up all those vital 22 seconds of air time to "bristle"? —  Expat Yank
  • So I bristle - I bristle hard - when some moron who thinks he is making some kind of case for Israel writes about how Palestinian reporters are implacably biased (and I wonder whether these fools realize how hard those accusations make it for Israelis and Jews who are reporting in the region.) —  JTA - Recent News
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This word has been looked up 157 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

mustache ·  tuft ·  fuzz ·  stubble ·  mane ·  mustaches ·  ringlet ·  eyebrow ·  blotch ·  curl ·  gauze ·  braid

Used in the same contextWord Family

bristle:   bristled ·  bristling ·  bristles
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English bristel, probably from Old English *byrstel, from byrst, bristle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English bristel, brestel, brustel berstle (= Dutch borstel = Middle Low German borstel), diminutive of brust (later Scots birse, birs: see brust, birse), a bristle, from Anglo-Saxon byrst, neuter, = Middle Low German borste, feminine, = Old High German burst, masculine, borst, neuter, bursta, feminine, Middle High German borst, masculine and neuter, borste, feminine, German borste, a bristle, Middle High German G. bürste, a brush, = Icelandic brust, feminine, = Swedish borst, masculine, = Danish börste, a bristle; by some derived, with formative -t, from the root of Old High German barrēn, parrēn (for *barsēn), be stiff, stand out stiffly; by others connected with English bur, burr.
  2. from Middle English bristlen, brustlen (= German börsteln), bristle; from the noun.
 

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/ˈbrɪsl/
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