Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Prickly |
PricklyAdjective1. Very irritable; "bristly exchanges between the White House and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful"; "witty and waspish about his colleagues". 2. Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns etc.; "a horse with a short bristly mane"; "bristly shrubs"; "burred fruits". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "prickly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1509. (references) |
Synonyms: PricklySynonyms: barbed (adj), barbellate (adj), briary (adj), briery (adj), bristled (adj), bristly (adj), burred (adj), burry (adj), spiny (adj), splenetic (adj), thorny (adj), waspish (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Roughness | Adjective: rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly,knotted; rugged, rugose, rugous; knurly; asperous, crisp, salebrous, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth, roughhewn; craggy, cragged; crankling, scraggy; prickly; (sharp); arborescent; leafy, well-wooded; feathery; plumose, plumigerous; laciniate, laciniform, laciniose; pappose; pileous, pilose; trichogenous, trichoid; tufted, fimbriated, hairy, ciliated, filamentous, hirsute; crinose, crinite; bushy, hispid, villous, pappous, bearded, pilous, shaggy, shagged; fringed, befringed; setous, setose, setaceous; "like quills upon the fretful porcupine"; rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear. |
Sharpness | Adjective: sharp, keen; acute; acicular, aciform; aculeated, acuminated; pointed; tapering; conical, pyramidal; mucronate, mucronated; spindle shaped, needle shaped; spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient; cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated; cornute, cornuted, cornicultate; prickly; spiny, spinous, spicular; thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary; craggy; (rough); snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform; dentiform, denticulated; toothed; odontoid; starlike; stellated, stelliform; sagittate, sagittiform; arrowheaded; arrowy, barbed, spurred. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Prickly |
| English words defined with "prickly": prickly ash, prickly lettuce, Prickly pear, Prickly poppy, Prickly withe. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "prickly": Monkey-puzzle. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "prickly": Lawn ♦ Prickliness, Prickling, Pyracanth. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You know those prickly things on the back of your neck? (The Sixth Sense; writing credit: M. Night Shyamalan) Look at me I'm a prickly pear. (Leaving Las Vegas; writing credit: Mike Figgis) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A prickly pear cactus in flower. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve. Prickly pear cactus at the marsh's edge. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
 | A barbed-wire fence, Prickly pear cacti, and a cow in the background. Credit: Beth Perault. |  | A flower in bloom on a Prickly Pear cactus. Credit: Unknown. |
 | Prickly Pear cacti grow all over the Agua Fria National Monument. Credit: Christine Tincher. |  | Another Prickly Pear Cactus in bloom in the Agua Fria National Monument. Credit: Chris Tincher. |
 | A scene with Prickly Pear cacti in the foreground and mountains in the background. Credit: Chris Tincher. |  | A desert tree and Prickly Pear cacti. Credit: Chris Tincher. |
 | A large tree and some prickly pear cacti on the foreground. Credit: Chris Tincher. |  | A flower blooming on a Prickly Pear cactus. Credit: Chris Tincher. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Flies with a mutation in the hedgehog gene have a peculiar prickly appearance. (references) | |
Usually there is no pain, but it is common for the affected area to feel numb or prickly, as if it has fallen asleep. (references) | ||
Individuals affected with the disorder describe the sensations as pulling, drawing, crawling, wormy, boring, tingling, pins and needles, prickly, and sometimes painful sensations that are usually accompanied by an overwhelming urge to move the legs. Sudden muscle jerks may also occur. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Prickly" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Prickly" is used about 197 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 197 | 21,803 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "prickly": be prickly ♦ bristly prickly snappish splenetic waspish ♦ prickly ash ♦ prickly character ♦ prickly custard apple ♦ prickly heat ♦ prickly hedge ♦ prickly lettuce ♦ prickly pear ♦ prickly pear cactus ♦ prickly pine ♦ prickly pole ♦ prickly poppy ♦ prickly rat ♦ prickly saltwort ♦ prickly shield fern ♦ prickly withe. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "prickly": prickly-heat, prickly-looking, prickly-pear, prickly-seeded spinach. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "prickly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | me gjemba (barbed, briery, spiky). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | ملىء بالشوك, واخز (smart), شائك (acarpous, barbed, knotty, spiked, spiky, spiny, sticky, thistly, thorny, touchy, tricky). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | раздразнителен (bad tempered, chippy, choleric, edgy, excitable, explosive, fretful, gingery, ill, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, irascible, irritable, liverish, livery, nervous, nervy, peevish, pettish, petulant, querulous, raspy, ratty, snappish, stroppy, techy, tetchy, touchy, vinegary), щекотлив (spiny), трънлив (briery, spiny, thorny), обидчив (hoity toity, huffish, miffy, pettish, resentful, sensitive, spiky, squeamish, susceptible, techy, testy, tetchy, thin-skinned, touchy, umbrageous), бодлив (barbed, briery, bur, scratchy, scrubby, spiny, thistly), деликатен (considerate, delicate, fastidious, fine, fragile, nice, pernickety, slender, slippery, slippy, soft, tender, thoughtful, ticklish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 多刺. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | pichlavý (pungent, thorny), trnitý (spiny, thorny), bodavý (thistly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | tærbe (Atlantic prickly skate, tarry skate, thorny skate), spias ceder (prickly cedar), spansk ene (prickly cedar), kaktusskjoldlus (cactus scale, prickly pear scale), kaktusfigen (Indian fig, prickly pear, tuna), indisk figen (Indian fig, prickly pear, tuna), figenkaktus (barbary fig tree, Indian fig tree, nopal, prickly pear cactus). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | stekelig. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | تیغ دار, زبر (Coarse, Ragged, Rough, Russet, Russeting, Scaly, Shaggy, Stark, Stubby), خراش دهنده . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | piikkinen (thorny), okainen (thorny). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | piquant (prickle), ombrageux, irritable, hérissé, embolie, délicat, épineux. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | stachelig (barbed, bristly, spiky, spiny, thistly, thorny). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ευερέθιστοσ (edgy, excitable, fretter, passionate, peevish, petulant, testy, touchy, waspish), ακανθώδησ (spinose, spinous, spiny, thistly, thorny), αγκαθωτόσ (spiky, spiny, thorny). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | קוצי (spinal, thorny), קוצ י (spiny, thistly, thorny), "וקר י (barbed, pungent, spiky, spiny), סמיר (bristly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | tüskés (bristly, hirsute, horrent, spiky, spiny, thorny), viszkető (scratchy, tingling, tingly), tövises (spiny, thorny), szúrós (barbed, bristly, fling, hirsute, intent, nasty, pungent, spiky, stinging, stingy), csiklandó (tingling, tingly), bizsergő (tingling, tingly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | cerangah (branched, forked, thorny), cerancang (thorny), berduri-duri (very thorny), berduri (barbed, brambly, thorny). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | pungente (acrid, biting, bitter, cutting, nipping, nippy, piercing, poignant, pointed, pungent, racy, scathing, sharp, stinging), prickly, permaloso (peevish, sensitive, snappish, thin-skinned, ticklish, touchy), spinoso (thorny), embolo (embolus). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 鬼" (prickly water lily), 汗知らず (baby powder, prickly heat powder), 汗疹 (heat rash, prickly heat), 汗疣 (heat rash, prickly heat), 山' (Japanese pepper, prickly ash). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | おにばす (prickly water lily), さ"しょう (3 cheers, consultation, Japanese pepper, praise, prickly ash, reference, singing three times), あせしらず (baby powder, prickly heat powder), あせも (heat rash, prickly heat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | jialgagh (spiniferous, spiny, thorny), friogganagh (bad-tempered, bristly, cantankerous, crabby, echinoid, edgy, finned, finny, liverish, offended, ratty, setaceous, stickleback, touchy), drineagh (thorny), caulgagh (bad-tempered, barbed, bearded; lesser weaver, bristly, exasperating, truculent, waspish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papago | ihbhai (prickly-pear cactus). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | icklypray pruriginoso, irritadiço (brittle, cantankerous, choleric, peevish, pettish, short-tempered, sore, splenetic, vinegary), espinhoso (briery, kittle, spiny, thorny, tough), de formigueiro, com espinhos, cheio de espinhos (thorny). (various references) ca ace, înţepãtor (biting, cutting, piquant, pungent, sharp, stinging, strong). (various references) колючий (barbed, briery, bristly, hispid, spiculate, spiky, spiny, thistly, thorny), имеющий шипы. (various references) peckav, bodljikav (barbed, horned, spiked, spiky, spiny), bockav. (various references) espinoso (bony, difficult, knotty, spiny, stickleback, tender, thistly, thorny, ticklish, tough, tricky). (various references) sí-hlehle (prickly pear). (various references) taggig (briery, spiny, thorny). (various references) karıncalanan, iğne gibi batan, huysuz (acrimonious, as cross as two sticks, bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, crabby, crank, cranky, cross-grained, crosspatch, crotchety, crusty, cursed, difficult, disagreeable, disgruntled, doggish, farouche, fractious, fretful, gnarled, grouchy, gruff, grumbling, grumpy, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, liverish, mean, Moody, out of humour, out of sorts, peeved, peevish, peppery, perverse, pettish, petulant, quarrelsome, querulous, ratty, rusty, shirty, snappish, spleenful, spleenish, splenetic, stroppy, sulky, surly, tetchy, thrawn, ugly, untoward, vicious, vixenish, waspish, wildcat, wrongheaded), dikenli (barbed, brambly, spiky, spined, spinose, spinous, spiny, thistly, thorny), asabi (choleric, crusty, hot-blooded, hot-headed, irritable, nervous, quick tempered, ratty, short tempered, techy, testy, waspish), çabuk sinirlenen (hasty, petulant, quick tempered, short tempered, swift to anger). (various references) tikenli (barbed, thorny). (various references) колючий (arrowy, barbed, briery, bristling, caustic, cutting, pricky, punching, spiky, spiny, thistly, thorny). (various references) có cảm giác đau nhói, đầy gai có cảm giác kim châm. (various references) pigog. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Prickly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Brockly, periculo, Picksley, Prickley. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "prickly" (pronounced pri"klē) |
| 4 | -i" k l ē | quickly, sickly, slickly, thickly. |
| 3 | -k l ē | academically, acoustically, aerobically, aerodynamically, aesthetically, alchemically, algebraically, alphabetically, analytically, anatomically, angelically, apologetically, artistically, astronomically, athletically, authentically, automatically, basically, biologically, biweekly, blankly, briskly, brusquely, categorically, characteristically, chemically, chronologically, classically, cosmetically, darkly, democratically, demographically, diplomatically, dogmatically, domestically, dramatically, drastically, ecologically, economically, ecstatically, emphatically, energetically, enthusiastically, erratically, ethnically, euphemistically, fantastically, forensically, frankly, generically, genetically, geometrically, geopolitically, graphically, grotesquely, heroically, hypothetically, hysterically, ideologically, idiotically, ironically, likely, linguistically, logically, logistically, lyrically, mechanically, medically, meekly, metaphorically, microscopically, musically, newsweekly, numerically, obliquely, optically, organically, paradoxically, pathologically, phonetically, physiologically, poetically, practically, prolifically, psychologically, publically, publicly, radically, realistically, rhetorically, rhythmically, sarcastically, sleekly, sparkly, specifically, sporadically, starkly, stoically, strategically, stylistically, symmetrically, synthetically, systematically, systemically, terrifically, thematically, theologically, tragically, typically, uncharacteristically, undiplomatically, uniquely, unlikely, unrealistically, vertically, volcanically, weakly, weekly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-i-k-l-p-r-y" | |
-1 letter: pricky. | |
-2 letters: lyric, picky, prick, pricy, pyric. | |
-3 letters: clip, icky, lick, pick, pily, pyic, rick. | |
-4 letters: cry, ick, icy, ilk, irk, kip, kir, lip, pic, ply, pry, rip, yip. | |
-5 letters: li, pi. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 72 69 63 6B 6C 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .-. .. -.-. -.- .-.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01110010 01101001 01100011 01101011 01101100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P r i c k l y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0072 0069 0063 006B 006C 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)50847569777891 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
