Of hair, quills, etc.: To be, become or stand, stiff and bristly. to bristle up: to rise like bristles.

intransitive. To stand out vertically from a surface; to stand on end.

In a direction opposite to the usual; the wrong way; to standor start widdershins, (of the hair) to ‘stand on end’. Obsolete.

Of the hair: To rise on end.

intransitive. Of the hair: to stick out or up. Cf. to start out 3 at phrasal verbs 1 to start up 1b at phrasal verbs 1, starting, adj. 2. Now rare.

intransitive. Of hair, a horse's coat, feathers, or fibres of any kind: to stand on end; to stick up. In later use chiefly as a technical term in…

intransitive. Of the hair: to stand on end; to bristle; to stick up.

Also with up. intransitive. Of the hair: to stand on end. Obsolete.

(intransitive) to undergo horripilation; transitive to cause horripilation in, make (the flesh) to creep.

intransitive. To stand stiff. Chiefly of the hair, etc.: to bristle, become rough, stand on end.

To become erect.

(up-, prefix affix 3a. Cf. upstaring, adj. and Spenser F.Q. iii. xii. 36.)