hérisser
French, verb/e.ʁi.se/
hérisser is spelled H-É-R-I-S-S-E-R (8 letters) and appears about once in every 10 million words in written French, the 103,520th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Hérisser is a French verb meaning “to bristle, ruffle (feathers, fur etc.)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Dresser ses cheveux, ses poils, ses plumes, en parlant de l’homme et des animaux”.
What does hérisser mean in English?
verb
- 1
to bristle, ruffle (feathers, fur etc.)
Joachim du Bellay, les regrets Je sens venir l'hiver, de qui la froide haleine / une tremblante horreur fait hérisser ma peau.
- 2
to spike; to form spikes in
- 3
colloquialto get somebody's back up
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Dresser ses cheveux, ses poils, ses plumes, en parlant de l’homme et des animaux. 2. Dresser ses cheveux, son poil, ses plumes. 3. Se dit en parlant des cheveux, du poil, des plumes. 4. Saillants, des pointes.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of hérisser
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- hérissant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- hérissé participle past
- hérisse first-person indicative present
- hérisses indicative present second-person
- hérissons first-person indicative plural
- hérissez indicative plural present
- hérissent indicative plural present
- hérissais first-person imperfect indicative
- hérissait imperfect indicative singular
- hérissions first-person imperfect indicative
- hérissiez imperfect indicative plural
- hérissaient imperfect indicative plural
- hérissai first-person historic indicative
- hérissas historic indicative past
- hérissa historic indicative past
- hérissâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce hérisser?
- /e.ʁi.se/
- ^((h aspiré))\e.ʁi.se\
- \e.ʁi.se\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is hérisser in French?
hérisser appears about once in every 10 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).