prickly
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Adjective
prickly (comparative pricklier, superlative prickliest)
- Covered with sharp points.
- The prickly pear is a cactus; you have to peel it before eating it to remove the spines and the tough skin.
- Easily irritated.
- He has a prickly personality. He doesn't get along with people because he is easily set off.
- Difficult; complicated; (figuratively) hairy or thorny.
- It was a prickly situation.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
covered with sharp points
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easily irritated
|
difficult, hairy
See also
Adverb
prickly (comparative more prickly, superlative most prickly)
- In a prickly manner.
- 2016, David Thomson, Biggest lesson of the 2016 Oscars? The Academy should be scrapped (in The Guardian, 3 March 2016)[1]
- Striding across stage in his bright white jacket, his voice soaring and cracking – like Charlie Parker’s – he was nervous but prickly eloquent, caustic yet encouraging.
- 2016, David Thomson, Biggest lesson of the 2016 Oscars? The Academy should be scrapped (in The Guardian, 3 March 2016)[1]
Noun
prickly (plural pricklies)
- (colloquial) Something that gives a pricking sensation; a sharp object.
- 2002, William A. Luckey, Long Ride to Nowhere (page 75)
- Below, way out on the flat, Blue had seen a light green that could be graze but up here was nothing 'cept all kinds of prickly bushes, and too many of them. Ground-spreading pricklies that reached out to jump at a horse's belly […]
- 2016, Richard J. Sklba, Joseph Juknialis, Easter Fire: Fire Starters for the Easter Weekday Homily (page 113)
- Dad, I need to ride on your shoulders because the pricklies hurt my feet.
- 2002, William A. Luckey, Long Ride to Nowhere (page 75)