The AI-powered English dictionary
comparative pricklier, superlative prickliest
Covered with sharp points. examples
(figurative) Easily irritated. examples
(figurative) Difficult; complicated; hairy or thorny. quotations examples
People who are prickly can’t be hurt any more. They’ve had it. So we just have to be prickly to make sure nobody’s going to come in and grab us.
2021 March 27, Simon Hattenstone, quoting Charlotte Rampling, “Charlotte Rampling: ‘I am prickly. People who are prickly can’t be hurt any more’”, in The Guardian
comparative more prickly, superlative most prickly
In a prickly manner. quotations examples
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 March 3, David Thomson, The Guardian
plural pricklies
(colloquial) Something that gives a pricking sensation; a sharp object. quotations examples
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 […]
2002, William A. Luckey, Long Ride to Nowhere, page 75
Dad, I need to ride on your shoulders because the pricklies hurt my feet.
2016, Richard J. Sklba, Joseph Juknialis, Easter Fire: Fire Starters for the Easter Weekday Homily, page 113