Very irritable:
— He became prickly and spiteful.

synonyms: bristly, splenetic, waspish.

Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc..

synonyms: barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, bristly, burred, burry, setaceous, setose, spiny, thorny ... show more.

Roget 253: 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 etc. (rough) 256; snaggy, digitated^†, two-edged, fusiform [Micro.]; dentiform^†, denticulated; toothed; odontoid^†; starlike; stellated^†, stelliform^†; sagittate^†, sagittiform^†; arrowheaded^†; arrowy^†, barbed, spurred.    acinaciform; apiculate^†, apiculated^†; aristate^†, awned, awny^†, bearded, calamiform^†, cone-shaped, coniform^†, crestate^†, echinate^†, gladiate^†; lanceolate^†, lanciform; awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl-shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped; setarious^†, spinuliferous^†, subulate^†, tetrahedral, xiphoid^†.    cutting; sharp edged, knife edged; sharp as a razor, keen as a razor; sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack; sharpened etc. v.; set ... show more

Roget 256: rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly, knotted; rugged, rugose^†, rugous^†; knurly^†; asperous^†, crisp, salebrous^†, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth^†, roughhewn^†; craggy, cragged; crankling^†, scraggy; prickly etc. (sharp) 253; arborescent etc. 242^†; leafy, well-wooded; feathery; plumose, plumigerous^†; laciniate^†, laciniform^†, laciniose^†; pappose^†; pileous^†, pilose^†; trichogenous^†, trichoid [Med.]; 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" [Hamlet]; rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear.    downy, velvety, flocculent, woolly; lanate^†, lanated^†; lanuginous^†, lanuginose^†; tomentose^†; fluffy.    ... show more

Polish: ciernisty, cierniowy