bristly > define

Very irritable.
- usage: "bristly exchanges between the White House and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful"; "witty and waspish about his colleagues"
- synonyms: prickly, splenetic, waspish
Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc..
- usage: "a horse with a short bristly mane"; "bristly shrubs"; "burred fruits"; "setaceous whiskers"
- synonyms: barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, burred, burry, prickly, setose, setaceous, spiny, thorny

(a.) Thick set with bristles or with hairs resembling bristles; rough.

by Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary