URCHIN

urchin

(noun) poor and often mischievous city child

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

urchin (plural urchins)

A mischievous child.

A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.

(archaic) A hedgehog.

A sea urchin.

A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.

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.

(historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.

Anagrams

• chunri, unrich

Source: Wiktionary

Ur"chin, n. Etym: [OE. urchon, irchon, a hedgehog, OF. ireçon, eriçon, heri, herichon, F. hérisson, a derivative fr. L. ericius, from er a hedgehog, for her; akin to Gr. Herisson.]

1. (Zoöl.)

Definition: A hedgehog.

2. (Zoöl.)

Definition: 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 (Zoöl.), a diodon.

Ur"chin, a.

Definition: Rough; pricking; piercing. [R.] "Helping all urchin blasts." Milton.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition