Definify.com
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.
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
Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.
urchins
that stand with their thievish eyesForever 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)
- 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.
- 1912, Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, Chapter 7
- 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.
- W. Howitt
- (archaic) A hedgehog.
- before 1400, The Romaunt of the Rose, translated from French, partially by Geoffrey Chaucer
- […] Like sharp urchouns his here was growe, / His eyes rede as the fire-glow; […]
- before 1400, The Romaunt of the Rose, translated from French, partially by Geoffrey Chaucer
- A sea urchin.
- A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.
- Shakespeare
- We'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies.
- Shakespeare
- 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?)
- (historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
Related terms
Translations
mischievous child
street kid
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