English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (hedgehog; sea urchin), from Old Northern French irechon, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem, from Latin ericius. Compare modern French hérisson, whence the English doublet herisson.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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urchin (plural urchins)

  1. A mischievous child.
  2. A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.
    • a. 1879, William Howitt, The Wind in a Frolic:
      And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes / Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.
  3. A sea urchin.
  4. 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.
    • 1836, Andrew Ure, The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain [] :
      Here we have a carding-engine, with the drum surmounted with urchin or squirrel cards []
  5. (historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
  6. (obsolete) A hedgehog.
  7. (obsolete) A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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