Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Bristly \Bris"tly\, a.
   Thick set with bristles, or with hairs resembling bristles;
   rough.

         The leaves of the black mulberry are somewhat bristly.
                                                  --Bacon.

Source : WordNet®

bristly
     adj 1: very irritable; "bristly exchanges between the White House
            and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful";
            "witty and waspish about his colleagues" [syn: {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"; "burred fruits"; "setaceous
        whiskers" [syn: {barbed}, {barbellate}, {briary}, {briery},
         {bristled}, {burred}, {burry}, {prickly}, {setose}, {setaceous},
         {spiny}, {thorny}]