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Bristle vs Brittle - What's the difference?

bristle | brittle |

As nouns the difference between bristle and brittle

is that bristle is a stiff or coarse hair while brittle is a confection of caramelized sugar and nuts.

As a verb bristle

is to rise or stand erect, like bristles.

As a proper noun Bristle

is bristol, England (in imitation of the local dialect.

As an adjective brittle is

inflexible, liable to break or snap easily under stress or pressure.

bristle

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A stiff or coarse hair.
  • The hair or straws that make up a brush, broom, or similar item.
  • Derived terms

    *

    Verb

    (bristl)
  • To rise or stand erect, like bristles.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • His hair did bristle upon his head.
  • To appear as if covered with bristles; to have standing, thick and erect, like bristles.
  • * Thackeray
  • the hill of La Haye Sainte bristling with ten thousand bayonets
  • * Macaulay
  • ports bristling with thousands of masts
  • To be on one's guard or raise one's defenses; to react with fear, suspicion, or distance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Now for the bare-picked bone of majesty / Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=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.}}
  • To fix a bristle to.
  • to bristle a thread

    Derived terms

    * bristling

    Anagrams

    * *

    brittle

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Inflexible, liable to break or snap easily under stress or pressure.
  • Cast iron is much more brittle than forged iron.
    A diamond is hard but brittle .
  • * 1977 , , Penguin Classics, p. 329:
  • 'Do you suppose our convent, and I too, / Are insufficient, then, to pray for you? / Thomas, that joke's not good. Your faith is brittle .
  • Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending.
  • * Shortbread'' is my favorite cold pastry, yet being so brittle it crumbles easily, and a lot goes to waste.
  • (archaeology) Said of rocks and minerals with a conchoidal fracture; capable of being knapped or flaked.
  • Emotionally fragile, easily offended.
  • What a brittle personality! A little misunderstanding and he's an emotional wreck.
  • (informal, proscribed) Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Merck manual Diabetes that is characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level.
  • Noun

  • (uncountable) A confection of caramelized sugar and nuts.
  • As a child, my favorite candy was peanut brittle .
  • (uncountable) Anything resembling this confection, such as flapjack, a cereal bar, etc.
  • Synonyms

    * brickle

    See also

    * break, breakable * short (adjective)

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    *