Term Gallery logo

Meanings of prickly in English

Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.

Related terms

Very irritable.

Related terms
Usage of prickly in English
1
However, given the prickly undercurrent, today may not be the best day!
The South African
2
Government and business relations between Singapore and Indonesia have historically been prickly.
Reuters
3
For a similar reason, the actual prickly pears themselves are attractively coloured.
Science in Arcady
4
Any mention of her former colleagues is bound to make her prickly.
The Naked God
5
My body is mostly numb, but I'm beginning to feel prickly sensations.
The Menstruating Mall
6
So tell me how you'd approach it. Okay, I was feeling prickly.
Ashes and bones: an emma fielding mystery
7
Even animals were wary of penetrating the dense morass of prickly bushes.
One minute to midnight: kennedy, khrushchev, and castro on the b...
8
The same treatment may be used in nettle rash or prickly heat.
The Mother and Her Child
9
Fish were reduced to stealthy shadows slithering among the prickly coral branches.
The Neutronium Alchemist
10
Preventive measures range from putting lights on timers to planting prickly hedges.
The Guardian
11
I shall miss the prickly cactus and the delicious dry heat, too.
Timescape
12
Xanthe made her way to a seat next to the prickly Hun.
The Last Gladiatrix
13
Which is a strange version of a sort of chronic prickly heat.
The Guardian
14
De Gaulle, comrade, is a most antagonistic and prickly sort of person.
Red inferno: 1945
15
Here, three rocky outcrops lie among a sea of thick, prickly plants.
BBC
16
At the end of the prickly tube stood a small red door.
The iron king
About this term
More collocations
Prickly through the time
Prickly across language varieties
South Africa
Common
United States of America
Less common
United Kingdom
Less common
More variants