English Explanatory Dictionary

urchin

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A mischievous child.
  2. A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.
  3. A sea urchin.
  4. 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.
  5. A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
  6. A hedgehog.
  7. A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.

Pronunciation

/ˈɜːtʃɪn/ /ˈɜːtʃən/ ûrʹchĭn /ˈɝt͡ʃɪn/ /ˈɝt͡ʃən/ en-us-urchin.ogg

Word forms

urchin urchins urchon

Etymology

From Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog; sea urchin”), from Old Northern French irechon, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem, from Latin ērīcius. Compare modern French hérisson, whence the English doublet herisson.

Derived words

cake urchin heart urchin keyhole urchin nano-urchin sea urchin street urchin urchin barren urchiness urchin fish urchinly wheel urchin
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