How to Use prickly in a Sentence

prickly

adjective
  • What can the rest of us learn from the prickly people in the world?
    Suzy Exposito, Vogue, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Look, read the labels, mull over the prickly unanswered questions many of the pieces leave you with.
    New York Times, 10 Feb. 2022
  • Gin: The gin’s role here is to add some prickly juniper on the finish, so get one that has a lot of that.
    Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 24 June 2023
  • My hair stood on end, and prickly sweat savaged my cheeks.
    Erik Hedegaard, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2021
  • That is, Pages stacked the deck in favour of the quirky, the prickly, the heroically uncommercial.
    Jason Guriel, Longreads, 10 Nov. 2022
  • Big yellow orbs still cling to a prickly maze of vines that has mostly died.
    Tess Taylor, CNN, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Rocks, a sparse clumping of tall grass, prickly things like cacti, and Joshua Trees as far as the eye can see.
    Allyson Portee, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2023
  • Electric blues, reds and purples of prickly urchins, sea stars and an anemones.
    Outside Online, 26 June 2024
  • Days later, hair would appear in his armpits again, tiny and prickly, like the heads of toothpicks in a jar.
    Hurmat Kazmi, The Atlantic, 23 Nov. 2021
  • Stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden and walk along its paths, but don't get too close to the prickly plants.
    Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 27 Mar. 2023
  • Now 2 weeks old, zoo staff said the prickly little one is doing well.
    From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 26 Jan. 2022
  • High will demonstrate how to care for, gather and cook prickly pears.
    Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Then in 2016, in a show of deference to the prickly Persians, Xi went to Tehran to cement the alliance.
    Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023
  • Both know each other’s triggers and Domont’s prickly screenplay has plenty of barbs that cut to the quick.
    Thomas Page, CNN, 27 Jan. 2023
  • The Skalkottas was the earliest of the pieces, but also the prickliest in rhythms and tartest in dissonance.
    Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 24 Apr. 2023
  • The main downside is that the tester could feel some of the prickly down feathers through the cover, which was uncomfortable at times.
    Erica Reagle, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Oct. 2022
  • The dungeon rewards Gjallarhorn and the prickly Thorn armor set.
    Paul Tassi, Forbes, 8 Nov. 2021
  • But the film is too prickly in its depictions of the era to be accused of glossing over ugliness.
    Alison Willmore, Vulture, 26 Nov. 2021
  • The desert setting is as prickly and vast and mutable as Watkins’s writing; the book is a stern kick to the groin of heroic tales about the majesty of the American West.
    Hillary Kelly, Vulture, 15 Dec. 2021
  • Crimes of the Future is the prickly, unusual evidence of that.
    K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 11 June 2022
  • Cooper and a friend, farmhand Jen Beal, rushed to the site, but both quickly realized the task was a pricklier fight.
    Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Some plants can be prickly, so grab your gardening gloves and clippers.
    Penelope O'Sullivan, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Aug. 2022
  • Some are prickly with people and not ideal dogs around children.
    Kyle Wintersteen, Field & Stream, 30 Jan. 2023
  • Fay is prickly, aloof, and obsessed with gay men; Nell is shy, sensitive, and obsessed with Fay.
    Sarah Yang, Sunset Magazine, 17 June 2024
  • Keep in Mind: Some of the down feathers poked through during testing, giving this pillow a prickly feel.
    Erica Reagle, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Oct. 2022
  • Both Frank Cosgroves are alive, but seem to be in a prickly situation.
    Evan Romano, Men's Health, 19 Jan. 2022
  • Kate’s stomach, already tense and prickly, did a little flip.
    Emily Burack, Town & Country, 4 Apr. 2022
  • Meanwhile, Coyle and other experts are looking at the best ways to destroy the prickly invaders.
    Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Union and Torres make the pair’s prickly exchanges arch if familiar fun.
    Lisa Kennedy, Variety, 20 June 2023
  • The goal is to turn themselves into prickly porcupines capable of denying China sea and air control near their shores.
    Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 14 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prickly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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