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



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Word of the Day

29 April 2024

SUBDUCTION

(noun) a geological process in which one edge of a crustal plate is forced sideways and downward into the mantle below another plate


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the largest iced coffee is 14,228.1 liters and was created by Caffé Bene (South Korea), in Yangju, South Korea, on 17 July 2014. They poured iced black Americano on the giant cup that measured 3.3 meters tall and 2.62 meters wide.

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