urchin
nounUK /ˈɜːtʃɪn/ · US /ˈɝt͡ʃɪn/
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.
7 senses
2
Obsolete A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.
- We'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
- In old wives tales that in old time did live, To whose odde tales much credit men did give, Great store of goblins, fairies, bugs, nightmares, Urchins, and elves, to many a house repaires.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 280:
3
A mischievous child.
- 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 January, Zane Grey, chapter 7, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
4
A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.
- And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes / Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.a. 1879, William Howitt, The Wind in a Frolic:
5
A sea urchin.
6
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.
- Here we have a carding-engine, with the drum surmounted with urchin or squirrel cards[…]1836, Andrew Ure, The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain […] :
7
Historical A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
- Derived terms
- cake urchin, heart urchin, keyhole urchin, nano-urchin, sea urchin, street urchin, urchin barren, urchiness, urchin fish, urchinly, wheel urchin