n. One of the stiff, coarse, glossy hairs of certain animals, especially those of the hog kind which are not hairless, large and thickly set along the back, and smaller and more scattered on the sides.n. A similar appendage on some plants; a stiff, sharp hair.n. In dipterous insects of the division Brachycera, the arista or terminal part of the antenna.n. In ornithology, a bristly feather; a feather with a stout stiff stem and little or no web.To erect the bristles of; erect in anger or defiance, as a hog erects its bristles.To make bristly.To fix a bristle on: as, to bristle a shoemaker's thread.To rise up or stand on end like bristles.To stand erect and close together like bristles.To be covered, as with bristles: as, the ranks bristled with spears. See to bristle with, below.To manifest conspicuously: as, he bristled with excitement.