▪ I. bristle, n.
(ˈbrɪs(ə)l)
Forms: 3–5 brustel, 4 brestel, brostle, 4–5 bru-, bristil, brestle, 5 bru-, brystyl(le, burstyll, 6 brisle, bristel(l, 6–7 brissel, brissle, 6– bristle.
[ME. brustel, brostle, corresp. to MDu. borstel (burstel), Du. borstel masc., LG. börssel fem.: a deriv. of the simpler form found in OE. byrst, ON. burst fem., OHG. burst masc., borst neut., bursta weak f. (MHG. borst, bürst, m. and n., borste f., Ger. borste f.): see birse. The OTeut. form of the root-syllable is *bors-, pointing to Aryan *bhers-: cf. Skr. bhṛsht{iacu}-s ‘point, prong, edge’. There may have been an OE. *brystl, and OS. *brustil, as direct source of the ME. and LG. forms.]
1. prop. a. One of the stiff hairs that grow on the back and sides of the hog and wild boar; used extensively by brushmakers, shoemakers, etc.
| [a 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 156 Hyre twigu beoð swylce swinen byrst.] c 1314 Guy Warw. (A) 3680 Nought worth the brestel of a swin. c 1320 Sir Beves 747 His Brostles were gret and long. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 148 As bristil bryngiþ in þe þreed. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxxxvii. (1495) 836 Sewetours call them brustyls and sewe therwyth. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 52 Brystylle or brustylle [1499 burstyll], seta. 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 16 Couered with bristels or bigge heares. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 3, I will not open my lippes so wide as a brissle may enter. 1605 Camden Rem. 35 Their brissels more than half shed. 1735 Somerville Chase i. 377 High on their bent Backs erect Their pointed Bristles stare. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 300 Bristles are the stiff, glossy hairs growing on the backs of wild and domesticated swine. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 533 In 1864 our Imports of Bristles were..2,346,135 lbs. |
b. transf. A filament of material other than natural bristle in the head of a brush, freq. with defining word as nylon (wire, etc.) bristle.
| a 1935 T. E. Lawrence Mint (1955) xxii. 76 Six of us and six wire brushes: but these were mangy things, with half their bristles missing. 1954 [implied at nylon-bristled adj. s.v. nylon 6 b]. 1969 Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 869/3 Double brush... 1 side has wire bristles for removing snarls; other side natural bristles for smoothing hair. |
2. gen. A short, stiff, pointed or prickly hair or similar appendage on other animals; the short hairs on the face of men when thickened and stiffened by shaving.
| a 1300 K. Alis. 6621 The delfyn..rerith up his brustelis grymme. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. vi. 71 Peple that..haue brestles aboute their mosell lyke swyne. 1591 Lyly Endym. ii. iii. 29 That chin..shall be filled with brissels as hard as broome. 1611 L. Barrey Ram Alley ii. i, When I was young..And wore the brissel on my upper lip. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Cats bristles [whiskers] have a large solid pith in the middle. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 129 Some of the Annelides possess a third kind of bristles, which M. Savigny terms hooked bristles. |
3. In plants: ‘A stiff hair or any slender outgrowth which may be likened to a hog's bristle’ (Gray); a setaceous appendage or seta.
| 1731–59 P. Miller Gardener's Dict. s.v. Cnicus, Striated seeds..encompassed at the top with a crown of stiff bristles. 1800 E. Darwin Phytologia xiv. 348. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 228 Some species of Galium are admirably characterized by the bristles of their leaves..being hooked backward or forward. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. 322 Tipped with a stiff short bristle. |
4. fig. to set up one's bristles: to show temper, resistance, or pride; to bristle up, ‘put up one's back’. to set up any one's bristles: to arouse such feelings in him. And similar phrases.
| 1533 Frith Ep. Chr. Rdr. Wks. (1829) 460 Cruel adversaries which set up their bristles, saying, Why, then, shall we do no good works? 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. liii. 316 Should the Jewes..set vp their bristles against God. 1589 Cooper Admon. 198 It is good to teach vs to pull downe our brissles, when we waxe proude. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 121 The more she strokes him, the more his bristles seem to rise. 1873 Goulburn Pers. Relig. iv. iii. 271 The feeling that he is to be lectured..sets a man's bristles up. |
5. attrib. and Comb.: as bristle brush; bristle-armed, bristle-backed, bristle-bearing, bristle-leaved, bristle-like, bristle-pointed, bristle-shaped adjs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 512 Cleanse it lightly with a wing or a bristle brush. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. Pref. D ij, Bristled on the back like Hogs..as if you should say, Bristle-backt. a 1845 Hood Lycus Cent., The bristle-backed boar. 1847–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 51/1 Delicate bristle-shaped processes or setæ. Ibid. IV. 404/1 Bristle-like organs. 1848 W. Gardiner Flora Forfarsh. 204 Bristle-pointed oat. 1863 J. A. Brewer Flora Surrey 277 Bristle-leaved Bent-grass..plentiful on Bagshot Heath. |
6. Special comb., as bristle-bird, a name given to certain Australian reed-warblers; bristle-dice, dice into which bristles were fixed to influence their position when thrown; bristle-fern, Trichomanes radicans; bristle-grass, the genus Setaria; bristle-herring, a genus (Chatoessus) of the herring family, in which the last ray of the dorsal fin is prolonged into a whip-like filament; bristle-moss, the genus Orthotrichum; bristle-worm, a chætopod; bristleworts n. pl., Lindley's name for the family Desvauxiaceæ, small tufted herbs with bristly leaves.
| 1827 Vigors & Horsfield in Trans. Linnæan Soc. XV. 232 He [sc. Mr. Caley] calls it in his notes *‘Bristle Bird’. 1865 Gould Birds Australia I. 343 Sphenura longirostris... Long-billed Bristle-bird. 1911 Lucas & Le Souëf Birds Australia 330 The Bristle-birds have a shy disposition, and live in reed-beds and thickets. 1967 M. Sharland Birds of Sun 177 Such species as emu, bristle-bird and two or three other ‘historical’ kinds. |
| 1532 Dice Play (1850) 28 *Bristle dice, be now too gross a practice to be put in use. 1680 Cotton in Singer Hist. Cards 335 This they do by false dice, as..By bristle-dice. |
| 1863 Kingsley Water-bab. 195 The Connemara heath, and the *bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall. 1863 Prior Plant-n., Bristle-fern, from the bristle that projects beyond its receptacle. |
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 299/1 Setaria... Two [species] are indigenous in England, S. verticellata and S. viridis, and called *bristle-grass. 1961 R. W. Butcher Brit. Flora II. 1025 The Green Bristle-grass is a loosely tufted annual with bent or erect stems 4–24 in. (10–60 cm.) high. |
| 1844 Sir W. Hooker Brit. Flora II. 57 *Bristle-moss; from the calyptra being generally clothed with hairs. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 8 Aug. 16/3 There is..a similarity in the eyes of the *bristle-worm to those of the fly. 1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man ix. 192 Certain marine bristle-worms (Polychaetes). |
▪ II. bristle, v.1
(ˈbrɪs(ə)l)
Also 5 brustel, brystylle, 7 brizle, brisle, brusle, brussel, -sle, -tle, brystle, 9 (dial.) brisle, brizzle.
[f. prec. n. See also brustle v.]
I. intr.
1. Of hair, quills, etc.: To be, become or stand, stiff and bristly. to bristle up: to rise like bristles.
| 1480 Caxton Ovid's Met. xiii. cxlv, The heer on my body..is longe and brustelith lyke brustelis. 1611 Florio, Arricciare..ones haire to stare or stand on end, to brizle. 1680 Otway Hist. Marius 58 His Beard brussled. 1725 Pope Odyss. xi. 392 Ere the harvest of the beard began To bristle on the chin. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxxvi, My hair bristled up. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 105 Mustachios bristling from under his nose. 1861 Holland Less. Life i. 16 The man who rises in the morning, with his feelings all bristling like the quills of a hedge-hog. |
2. Of animals: To raise the bristles, as a sign of anger or excitement. b. Of persons: To display temper or indignation, to ‘show fight.’ Also with up.
| 1549 Olde Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. vi. 2 It is not semely that..they should bristle againste their maisters. 1611 Dekker Roar. Girle i. Wks. 1873 III. 145 Now is my cue to bristle. 1688 J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 133 The howling of the Dogs he supposed..made her [the sow] come furiously brisling. 1830 Foster in Life & Corr. (1846) II. 160 Without bristling into anger. 1837 Disraeli Venetia i. xiii, ‘You shall do no such thing’, said Mrs. Cadurcis, bristling up. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown Oxf. I. ix. 160 There now! don't bristle up like a hedgehog. |
3. To be or become bristly; to be thickly set with (bristly points).
| 1606 Sir G. Goosecappe i. ii. in Bullen Old. Pl. (1884) III. 16 If your French wood brystle, let him alone. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. ii. 32 Brisling with bushes and over-grown with wood. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. v. ix. (1872) I. 179 All France to the utmost borders bristles with bayonets. 1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. i. 33 The sea-line..bristles with projecting headlands. |
b. fig., as in to bristle with difficulties.
| 1864 Burton Scot Abr. II. i. 105 A Latin preface..bristling with Greek quotations. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life ii. i. 51 The fine arts bristle all over with technical difficulties. |
4. To be actively or aggressively astir with.
| 1844 Kinglake Eothen xv. (1878) 181 Bristling with zeal. 1884 Evangelical Mag. Jan. 36 The old place once more bristled with life |
II. trans.
5. To erect stiffly (hair, etc.) like bristles: chiefly in a temper of hostility. Also with up.
| 1595 Shakes. John iv. iii. 149 Now..Doth dogged warre bristle his angry crest. 1612 Bp. Hall Contempl. O.T. xxi. ii, So do savage beasts bristle up themselves..when they are in danger of loosing the prey. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 309 [Bears] champing their teeth, and bristling their hair, in a frightful manner. 1793 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 65 (1794) III. 8 Those aspiring asparagus, that bristle up their vegetable spears. 1863 Kingsley Water-bab. iv. 153 He would..bristle up his feathers, just as a cock-robin would. |
b. fig.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 98 Which makes him..bristle vp The crest of Youth against your Dignity. 1598 Chapman Iliad i. 192 Thetis's son at this stood vex'd, his heart Bristled his bosom. 1615 Adams Politic. Hunting Wks. 1861 I. 8 The great one bristles up himself, and conceits himself higher by the head than all the rest. |
6. To furnish with a bristle or bristles; to make bristly.
| 1678 A. Littleton Lat. Dict., To bristle a shooe-makers thread. Inseto. 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 37 Your hook should be bristled, that is..fasten a hog's bristle under the silk. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. cvii. iii, Ice..bristles all the brakes and thorns To yon hard crescent. |
7. To cover as with bristles, to cause to bristle.
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1857) I. ii. iii. iv. 321 Bristle yourself round with cannon. 1848 Lytton Harold vi. vi, He would bristle all the land with castles. |
8. To ruffle violently, exasperate.
| 1872 Blackie Lays Highl. 40 The black squall..Bristles the soft lake to a Fury. |
▪ III. † ˈbristle, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
In 5 brystylle, 6 bristell, brissle, burstle, 7 brusle, brustle, (9 dial. brizzle, bruzzle).
[The forms brusle, brustle, suggest adoption from 15–16th c. Fr. brusle-r to burn, Pr. bruslar, It. brustolare; but the earlier bristle, brissle, makes this derivation doubtful, as does also the Sc. form birsle.]
1. trans. To render the surface of (anything) crisp with heat; to toast, scorch, parch.
Hence ˈbristled ppl. a.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 44 To Brystylle, vstillare. 1553 Douglas æneis vii. ix. 109 Blunt styngis of the brissillit tre [MSS. byrsillit]. 1562 Turner Bathes 17 Let him perche or bristell at the fyre Nigella Romana. ― Herbal ii. (1568) 93 The perched or burstled peasen..called in Northumberland Carlines. 1691 Ray N.C. Wds., ‘The sun brustles the hay’ i.e. dries it; ‘brusled pease’ i.e. parched pease. 1876 Mid.-Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Brizzle or Bruzzle, to scorch, near to burning; to broil. 1877 Holderness Gloss. (E.D.S.) Bruzzled-peas. |
2. intr. (for refl.) To become crisp with heat.
| 1788 Gentl. Mag. i. 189 They [peas] will then parch, crack, as we provincially [Northumberland] call it, bristle. |