PRICKLY (pricklier, prickliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: pricklier    , prickliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prickly mean? 

• PRICKLY (adjective)
  The adjective PRICKLY has 2 senses:

1. very irritable

2. having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.

  Familiarity information: PRICKLY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRICKLY (adjective)

Comparative: pricklier   
Superlative: prickliest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very irritable

Synonyms:

bristly; prickly; splenetic; waspish

Context example:

witty and waspish about his colleagues

Similar:

ill-natured (having an irritable and unpleasant disposition)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.

Synonyms:

barbed; barbellate; briary; briery; bristled; bristly; burred; burry; prickly; setaceous; setose; spiny; thorny

Context example:

setaceous whiskers

Similar:

armed ((used of plants and animals) furnished with bristles and thorns)

Derivation:

prickle (a small sharp-pointed tip resembling a spike on a stem or leaf)

prickliness (the quality of being covered with prickly thorns or spines)

 Context examples 

The unusual horse-coat is rough to the touch, prickly and off-standing.

(Chinese Shar-Pei, NCI Thesaurus)

Although they both felt the brushing of hairy skin, one claimed it felt prickly instead of the pleasant sensation reported by unaffected volunteers.

(“Sixth sense” may be more than just a feeling, NIH)

I put out my hand to feel the dark mass before me: I discriminated the rough stones of a low wall—above it, something like palisades, and within, a high and prickly hedge.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

If she suspected this, she would have shut up tight, and been more prickly than ever, fortunately she wasn't thinking about herself, so when the time came, down she dropped.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Miliaria rubra, or prickly heat, results from apocrine duct obstruction.

(Miliaria, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

He studied it intently for a moment, then took a careful grip with his teeth and started off down the stream, partly carrying, partly dragging the porcupine, with head turned to the side so as to avoid stepping on the prickly mass.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Among the many pillows that adorned the venerable couch was one, hard, round, covered with prickly horsehair, and furnished with a knobby button at each end.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It's just what you need to bring out the tender womanly half of your nature, Jo. You are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernal, if one can only get at it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)