Dictionary

urchin en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɝt͡ʃɪn/ (General-American)
• (US) audio
• ûrʹchĭn (General-American)
• /ˈɝt͡ʃən/ (General-American)
• /ˈɜːtʃɪn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈɜːtʃən/ (Received-Pronunciation)

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.

Meanings

1. (archaic, dialectal) A hedgehog.
2. (obsolete) A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.
   • 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:
   • 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]:
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.

Forms

Deriveds

urchin barren · urchiness · nano-urchin · urchinlike · heart urchin · sea urchin · urchin fish · wheel urchin · keyhole urchin · urchinly · street urchin · cake urchin

Translations (37)

fr garnement (mischievous child) · hu csibész (mischievous child) · sh deran (mischievous child) · fi viikari (mischievous child) · bg палавник (mischievous child) · el διαβολάκι (mischievous child) · de Göre (mischievous child) · nl bengel (mischievous child) · de Lausbube (mischievous child) · it lazzarone (mischievous child) · de Lümmel (mischievous child) · oc esparnèl (mischievous child) · de Schlingel (mischievous child) · es gamín (mischievous child) · de Racker (mischievous child) · hu lurkó (mischievous child) · el παλιόπαιδο (mischievous child) · az şuluq (mischievous child) · ro ștrengar (mischievous child) · es golfillo (mischievous child) · io bubo (mischievous child) · bg калпазанин (mischievous child) · ru баловни́к (mischievous child) · de Bengel (mischievous child) · eo bubo (mischievous child) · it discolo (mischievous child) · ru прока́зник (mischievous child) · it peste (mischievous child) · ja 小汚いガキ (mischievous child) · oc galapian (mischievous child) · it monello (mischievous child) · pl łobuziak (mischievous child) · pl urwis (mischievous child) · it birichino (mischievous child) · ru озорни́к (mischievous child) · es gamina (mischievous child) · pt moleque (mischievous child)