Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A playful or mischievous youngster; a scamp.
- n. A sea urchin.
- n. A hedgehog.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A hedgehog. See hedgehog and Erinaceus.
- n. A sea-urchin.
- n. An elf; a fairy: from the supposition that it sometimes took the form of hedgehog.
- n. A roguish child; a mischievous boy.
- n. One of a pair of small cylinders covered with card-clothing, used in connection with the card-drum in a carding-machine.
- Elfish; mischievous.
- Trifling; foolish.
Wiktionary
- n. A mischievous child.
- n. street kid, a child from a poor neighborhood.
- n. archaic A hedgehog.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A hedgehog.
- n. (Zoöl.) A sea urchin. See Sea urchin.
- n. A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form a hedgehog.
- n. A pert or roguish child; -- now commonly used only of a boy.
- 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.
- adj. rare Rough; pricking; piercing.
WordNet 3.0
- n. poor and often mischievous city child
Etymologies
- Ultimately from Latin ericius ("hedgehog"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English urchone, hedgehog, from Old French erichon, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciō, ērīciōn-, from Latin ērīcius, from ēr. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I'm the King of the Castle,'" chanted the urchin from the topmost pinnacle.”
“He is a very pleasant and obliging character, and dotingly fond of little Alex, from knowing and loving and honouring all his family; and this you will a little guess is something of an avenue to a certain urchin's madre.”
“While this was passing, the birling had drawn close to the boat; and Murray, shaking hands with his uncle and aunt, exclaimed to Wallace, "That urchin is such a monopolizer, I see you have not a greeting for anyone else.”
“All the festivities of the wedding-day destroyed, till this dear unlucky urchin is found.”
“Heywood fancied the urchin was a wild beast of some sort on two legs, but a second glance convinced him that he was a real boy.”
“Only the live prawn went uneaten and most of the sea urchin, which is a more complicated story.”
“I too noted the change from addressing the reader to addressing the urchin, which is what confused me, but it works, so that’s what’s important!”
“The name "urchin" comes from their body's close resemblance to the spine-covered hedgehog.”
“Urchin blasts' is probably here used generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and blasting vapours chill,"'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin”
“WNW is "urchin," ` defined as "a small child, esp. a boy, who is poor, ragged, etc. and often mischievous or undisciplined.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘urchin’.
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EN - fine scholarly language
exhort, accretion, twenty-nine, atrophy, additive, brilliantly, interreligious, empiricism, pathologic, limitless, half-century, vigilant and 488 more...
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supernatural creatures according to M...
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
Hobbit (n.)
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...niss, nisses, thrummy-cap, fairy, whitewoman, nicknevin, sibyl, fates, sprite, gnome, cuttie, scrat and 186 more...
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 134 more...
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PECH - marine species
Alaska plaice, African cuttlefish, Alaska pollock, Alaska pollack, walleye pollock, alewife, gaspereau, river herring, sawbelly, allis shad, American angler, goosefish and 994 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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You animal!
Names of animals that are also used to describe kinds of people. Nouns only, preferably single word.
For a related list, see sionnach's beastly verbs.rabbit, shark, hog, pussycat, bear, bull, skunk, hawk, wildcat, buck, slug, heifer and 112 more...
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Nigerian English
This list was inspired by this article. Any Nigerians out there care to add to it?
chop house, felicitate, jubilate, cutlass, waterloo, tout, urchin, gripe water, vulcanizer, miscreant, can of worms, sorry-o and 121 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, ne'er-do-well, cad, thug, churl, boor, hooligan, bastard, slubberdegullion, dastard, tosspot and 85 more...
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everything
everythin?
a, i, aardvark, abdominals, any, anti-, ash, actuall, actually, add, abs, ass and 43 more...
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Anglo-Norman
English words of Norman-French origin.
wage, wait, war, wicket, warranty, guarantee, guard, warden, guardian, glamour, grammar, catch and 30 more...
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animals (2 syllable)
A list of common animal names. Keep the list to 2 syllable words.No scientific names. No proper names like 'Fluffy' the elephant.Insects and other creatures (even ficticious like 'dragon') are we...
baboon, rabbit, raptor, dragon, camel, hornet, llama, cobra, cheetah, penguin, puppy, dolphin and 87 more...
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Spinning
This list is basically an excuse for me to list the word wool four times in a row.
wool, spin, spinning, cotton, scribble, scribbler, scribbling, spindle whorl, spindlewhorl, card, card-clothing, carding-machine and 68 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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edwardvielmetti's Words
wordhord, wordhoard, wordy, wordie, wiki, toriokyo, superpatron, vacuum, crazy, crazybusy, a2b3, 48104 and 220 more...
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~~Olde-Fashioned Insults~~
ragamuffin, muttonchops, tatterdemalion, nincompoop, whippersnapper, bootlicker, backscratcher, loggerhead, weisenheimer, hornswoggler, thimblerigger, quacksalver and 111 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for urchin.
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