bristle
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
brisuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹɪsəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.
The hairs or other filaments that make up a brush, broom, or similar item, typically made from plant cellulose, animal hairs, or synthetic polymers.
A stiff fiber (coarse hair or filament); natural or synthetic
A chaeta: an analogous filament on arthropods, annelids, or other animals.
verb
Rise up as in fear
intransitiveusually with with
To abound, to be covered with, or to have an abundance of, something, especially something jutting out.
intransitiveusually with at or with
To be on one's guard or raise one's defenses; to react with fear, suspicion, or distance.
intransitive
To rise or stand erect, like bristles.
Have or be thickly covered with or as if with bristles
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.
Used this way, bristle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bristle
- “He bristled at her suggestion that he should teach her how to use the program.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Show anger or indignation.
A brush that is made with the short stiff hairs of an animal or plant.
Any fern of the genus Trichomanes having large pinnatifid often translucent fronds.
Grasses of grasslands and woodlands having large gracefully arching spikes with long bristles beneath each spikelet.
Show anger or indignation.
A variety of bristle fern.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.