prickly

/ˈprɪk(ə)li/

/ˈprɪkli/

Other forms: prickliest; pricklier

Prickly things are sharp and spiky, while prickly people are quick to be offended or irritated. Ouch!

A prickly tag in the collar of your new shirt can make you uncomfortable all day, and so can a prickly co-worker whose feelings seem to get hurt by everything you say. Porcupines and cactuses are prickly, and so is the next-door neighbor who is constantly irritated with you. The first thing that was described as prickly, in the 1570s, was a holly leaf.

Definitions of prickly

1. adjective

   very irritable
   “he became prickly and spiteful”

   synonyms: bristly, splenetic, waspish

   ill-natured

   having an irritable and unpleasant disposition
2. adjective

   having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.
   synonyms: barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, bristly, burred, burry, setaceous, setose, spiny, thorny

   armed

   (used of plants and animals) furnished with bristles and thorns