different between scratchy vs prickly

English

Etymology

scratch +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sk?æt?i/

  Rhymes: -æt?i

Adjective

scratchy (comparative scratchier, superlative scratchiest)

1. Characterized by scratches.

   • An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.

2. (chiefly of a sore throat) Annoying, irritating, itchy.
3. (informal, of an analogue radio transmission) Noisy, lossy; marred by white noise or static as a result of poor or low signal, interference or unfavourable atmospheric conditions.

4. (of a phonograph record) Having popping and/or crackling sounds due to excessive wear, especially from scratch marks.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things

     Once he almost fell asleep, and then the little record player started up in his mother and father's bedroom. Mom was playing her scratchy Elvis 45s again.

English

Etymology

prickle +? -y

Pronunciation

Adjective

prickly (comparative pricklier, superlative prickliest)

1. 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.

2. Easily irritated.

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

3. Difficult; complicated; (figuratively) hairy or thorny.

   It was a prickly situation.

Synonyms

• (covered with sharp points): thorny, spiny

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• prick

Adverb

prickly (comparative more prickly, superlative most prickly)

1. In a prickly manner.
   • 2016, David Thomson, Biggest lesson of the 2016 Oscars? The Academy should be scrapped (in The Guardian, 3 March 2016)[1]

     Striding across stage in his bright white jacket, his voice soaring and cracking – like Charlie Parker’s – he was nervous but prickly eloquent, caustic yet encouraging.

Noun

prickly (plural pricklies)

1. (colloquial) Something that gives a pricking sensation; a sharp object.
   • 2002, William A. Luckey, Long Ride to Nowhere (page 75)

     Below, way out on the flat, Blue had seen a light green that could be graze but up here was nothing 'cept all kinds of prickly bushes, and too many of them. Ground-spreading pricklies that reached out to jump at a horse's belly […]

   • 2016, Richard J. Sklba, Joseph Juknialis, Easter Fire: Fire Starters for the Easter Weekday Homily (page 113)

     Dad, I need to ride on your shoulders because the pricklies hurt my feet.