Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Adjective: prickly (pricklier,prickliest)  pri-k(u-)lee
  1. Very irritable
    "he became prickly and spiteful";
    - bristly, splenetic, waspish
     
  2. Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.
    "a horse with a short prickly mane";
    - barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, bristly, burred, burry, setose, setaceous, spiny, thorny

Derived forms: prickliest, pricklier

See also: armed, ill-natured

Nearest

prick up
pricker
pricket
pricking
prickle
prickle cell
prickleback
prickle-weed
prickliness
prickling
prickly
prickly ash
prickly custard apple
prickly heat
prickly lettuce
prickly pear
prickly pear cactus
prickly pine
prickly poppy
prickly shield fern
prickly-edged leaf