Synonyms:
bristly, prickly, splenetic, waspish
Meaning: very irritable; "bristly exchanges between the White House and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful"; "witty and waspish about his colleagues"
Usage examples
"Do they have spines like Prickly Porky?" demanded Peter Rabbit.
Isn't that so?" Happy Jack turned to the others and every one nodded, even Prickly Porky.
A few yards farther the Kid stopped the roan and gazed intently through the prickly openings.
You are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernal, if one can only get at it.
He turned now to his right up a little hill, pebble-covered, upon which grew only the tenacious and thorny prickly pear and chaparral.
Only Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel and Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Prickly Porky the Porcupine, who were sitting in trees, kept their places. You see they felt quite safe.
"Hate to be a dignitary in all this heat," Amos said, unenviously. "What are they doing now?" he enquired, and both boys parted the prickly pine needles to look out and down.
Alas, it is another of those prickly fish, she notices at once, one of those confounded tit-bits that are only to be looked at, but which neither teeth nor throat are ever glad to deal with; and she opens her mouth and chokes and spits.