Bristly \Bris"tly\, a.
   Thick set with bristles, or with hairs resembling bristles;
   rough.
   
[1913 Webster]


         The leaves of the black mulberry are somewhat bristly.
                                                  --Bacon.
   
[1913 Webster]

bristly
     adj 1: very irritable; "bristly exchanges between the White House
            and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful";
            "witty and waspish about his colleagues" [syn: {prickly},
             {splenetic}, {waspish}]
     2: having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines
        or thorns or setae etc.; "a horse with a short bristly
        mane"; "bristly shrubs"; "burred fruits"; "setaceous
        whiskers" [syn: {barbed}, {barbellate}, {briary}, {briery},
         {bristled}, {burred}, {burry}, {prickly}, {setose}, {setaceous},
         {spiny}, {thorny}]

41 Moby Thesaurus words for "bristly":
   acanaceous, aculeolate, barbellate, brambly, briery, bristled,
   bristling, bushy, cirrose, fleecy, flocculent, furry, fuzzy,
   glochidiate, hairy, hirsute, hispid, lanate, matted, muricate,
   pilose, pricking, prickly, pricky, pubescent, setaceous, setose,
   setous, shagged, shaggy, stinging, strigal, strigate, strigose,
   stubbled, stubbly, studded, thistly, thorny, unshorn, woolly