URCHIN

n. a.

6 definitions — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

1.
n.

A hedgehog.

2.
n.

A sea urchin. See Sea urchin.

3.
n.

A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form a hedgehog. "We 'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies." Shak.

4.
n.

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.
n.

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.

6.
a.

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

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