dial. [f. ME. stive STIFF a. + -ER5.] intr. To stand stiff. Chiefly of the hair, etc.: to bristle, become rough, stand on end.
Hence Stivered ppl. a., Stivering ppl. a. Also Stivery a., bristly, rough.
1790. Grose, Prov. Gloss. (ed. 2), Stivering or Stubvering up against, standing stiff. West.
1832. Blackw. Mag., XXXI. 592. His tail he tuck’d into his pantaloons, With a Brutus, all stivering and hairy.
a. 1855. A. Crosse, Memorials (1857), 124. I saw that her hair was stivered; the cat was evidently ill.
1889. Reports Provinc., Devon (E. D. D.), The birds look big in winter with their feathers all stivered out.
