Prickliness vs. Prickly

Pricklinessnoun

The state or quality of being prickly.

Pricklyadjective

Covered with sharp points.

‘The prickly pear is a cactus; you have to peel it before eating it to remove the spines and the tough skin.’;

Pricklinessnoun

The quality of being prickly, or of having many prickles.

Pricklyadjective

Easily irritated.

‘He has a prickly personality. He doesn't get along with people because he is easily set off.’;

Pricklyadjective

Difficult; complicated; (figuratively) hairy or thorny.

‘It was a prickly situation.’;

Pricklyadverb

In a prickly manner.

Pricklynoun

(colloquial) Something that gives a pricking sensation; a sharp object.

Pricklyadjective

Full of sharp points or prickles; armed or covered with prickles; as, a prickly shrub.

Pricklyadjective

very irritable;

‘bristly exchanges between the White House and the press’; ‘he became prickly and spiteful’; ‘witty and waspish about his colleagues’;

Pricklyadjective

having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.;

‘a horse with a short bristly mane’; ‘bristly shrubs’; ‘burred fruits’; ‘setaceous whiskers’;