prickly

Etymology

prickle + -y

adj

1. Covered with sharp points.
   The prickly pear is a cactus; you have to peel it before eating it to remove the spines and the tough skin.
2. (figurative) Easily irritated.
   He has a prickly personality. He doesn't get along with people because he is easily set off.
3. (figurative) Difficult; complicated; hairy or thorny.
   It was a prickly situation.
   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. 2021-03-27, Simon Hattenstone, quoting Charlotte Rampling, “Charlotte Rampling: ‘I am prickly. People who are prickly can’t be hurt any more’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

adv

1. In a prickly manner.
   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. 3 March 2016, David Thomson, The Guardian

noun

1. (colloquial) Something that gives a pricking sensation; a sharp object.
   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