WordWeb Online

1. Very irritable
   "bristly exchanges between the White House and the press"
   - prickly, splenetic, waspish
    
2. Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.
   "a horse with a short bristly mane"; "bristly shrubs"
   - barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, burred, burry, prickly, setose, setaceous, spiny, thorny

Derived forms: bristlier, bristliest

See also: armed, bristle, bristliness, ill-natured