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Webster 1913 Edition


Urchin

Ur′chin

(û′chĭn)
,
Noun.
[OE.
urchon
,
irchon
, a hedgehog, OF.
ireçon
,
eriçon
,
heriçon
,
herichon
, F.
hérisson
, a derivative fr. L.
ericius
, from
er
a hedgehog, for
her
; akin to Gr.
χήρ
. Cf.
Herisson
.]
1.
(Zool.)
A hedgehog.
2.
(Zool.)
A sea urchin. See
Sea urchin
.
3.
A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form a hedgehog.
“We ’ll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies.”
Shak.
4.
A pert or roguish child; – now commonly used only of a boy.
And the
urchins
that stand with their thievish eyes
Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.
W. Howitt.
You did indeed dissemble, you
urchin
you; but where's the girl that won't dissemble for an husband?
Goldsmith.
5.
One of a pair in a series of small card cylinders, arranged around a carding drum; – so called from its fancied resemblance to the hedgehog.
Knight.
Urchin fish
(Zool.)
,
a diodon.

Ur′chin

,
Adj.
Rough; pricking; piercing.
[R.]
“Helping all urchin blasts.”
Milton.

Webster 1828 Edition


Urchin

UR'CHIN

,
Noun.
1.
A name given to the hedgehog.
2.
A name of slight anger given to a child; as, the little urchin cried.

Definition 2024


urchin

urchin

English

Noun

urchin (plural urchins)

  1. A mischievous child.
    • 1912, Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, Chapter 7
      And like these fresh green things were the dozens of babies, tots, toddlers, noisy urchins, laughing girls, a whole multitude of children of one family. For Collier Brandt, the father of all this numerous progeny, was a Mormon with four wives.
  2. A street kid, a child from a poor neighborhood.
    • W. Howitt
      And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes / Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.
  3. (archaic) A hedgehog.
  4. A sea urchin.
  5. A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.
    • Shakespeare
      We'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies.
  6. One of a pair in a series of small card cylinders arranged around a carding drum; so called from its fancied resemblance to the hedgehog.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
  7. (historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.

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