From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bristly \Bris"tly\, a.
Thick set with bristles, or with hairs resembling bristles;
rough.
[1913 Webster]
The leaves of the black mulberry are somewhat bristly.
--Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
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: bristly,
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,
bristly, burred, burry, prickly, setose,
setaceous, spiny, thorny]