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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