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Thorny vs Bristled - What's the difference?

thorny | bristled |

As an adjective thorny

is having thorns or spines.

As a verb bristled is

(bristle).

thorny

English

Adjective

(er)
  • having thorns or spines
  • troublesome or vexatious
  • * Shakespeare
  • the steep and thorny way to heaven
  • aloof and irritable
  • * Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives
  • 'Come, Jo, don't be thorny . After studying himself to a skeleton all the week, a fellow deserves petting, and ought to get it.'

    Derived terms

    * (l) * thorny restharrow * thorny trefoil

    Anagrams

    *

    bristled

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (bristle)
  • Anagrams

    *

    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

    * *