See Also: Prickly(medicine)
prickly(dictionary)
prickly(dictionary)
prickly heat(medicine)
prickly pear(encyclopedia)
prickly heat(dictionary)
prickly pear(dictionary)
Prickly pear(recipes)

prickly (iou)



prickly adjective. L16.
[from PRICKLE noun1 + -Y1.]
a. Having prickles, covered with prickles; causing a prickling sensation. L16.
G. Lord Prickly grasses and stunted brush tore at bare legs. Jayne Phillips I sat and sweated on the prickly car seats.
b. fig. (Of a topic, argument, etc.) full of contentious or irritating points; (of a person) quick to react angrily, touchy. M19.
B. Mason He was..prickly..sensing insults and quickly avenging them.
Having a prickling sensation, tingling. M19.
J. Buchan The skin grows hot and prickly.
Special collocations: prickly ash any of several spiny N. American shrubs or trees whose bark is used medicinally; esp. Zanthoxylum americanum and Z. clava-herculis, of the rue family, and the angelica tree Aralia spinosa (family Araliaceae). prickly glasswort: see GLASS noun. prickly heat an itchy rash of small raised red spots caused by inflammation of the sweat glands, most common in hot moist weather; also called heat rash, miliaria. prickly Moses: see MOSES 3. prickly pear any of various usu. very spiny cacti constituting the genus Opuntia, with jointed stems freq. having flattened segments; the fleshy, freq. edible fruit of such a plant. prickly poppy = MEXICAN poppy. prickly rat = TUCO-TUCO. prickly rhubarb a S. American plant, Gunnera manicata (see GUNNERA), with prickly hairs on the petioles of its huge leaves. prickly saltwort: see SALTWORT 1. prickly withe a climbing cactus of the W. Indies, Hylocereus triangularis.
prickliness noun M17.