spiky

adjective7

1. •
   Having one or more spikes; spiny.

   • The spiky VVheels thro' Heaps of Carnage tore; / And thick the groaning Axles dropp'd vvith Gore. — 1720
2. •
   Resembling spikes: erect and having sharp points; spikelike.

   • [I]f ten thousand of this spiky tree, the larch, are stuck in at once upon the side of a hill, they can grow up into nothing but deformity; […] — 1810
3. •
   (figurative) Of a thing: not smooth; rough, sharp.
4. •
   (figurative) Of a person or their nature: difficult to deal with; abrasive, hostile, unfriendly.
5. •
   Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).
6. •
   Of a plant part: resembling a spike of a plant (see above).

   • [D]ivers hairy Stalks, about a hand breadth high, bearing every one a small long spiky Head like to those of the common Plantane, having such like Bloomings and Seed after them. — 1652
7. •
   (disapproving, figurative) Excessively high church (“practising a formal style of liturgy and emphasizing continuity with Catholicism”).

   • I wondered if this meant he was a spiky Anglo-Catholic, which seemed a little unlikely, given that Norfolk's spiky hotspots are well-known. — 2022