urchin

[ ur-chin ]

noun

1. a mischievous boy.

   Synonyms: scamp, rascal

2. any small boy or youngster.
3. sea urchin.
4. either of two small rollers covered with card clothing used in conjunction with the cylinder in carding.
5. Chiefly British Dialect. a hedgehog.
6. Obsolete. an elf or mischievous sprite.

urchin

/ ˈɜːtʃɪn /

noun

1. a mischievous roguish child, esp one who is young, small, or raggedly dressed
2. See sea urchin heart urchin
3. an archaic or dialect name for a hedgehog
4. either of the two cylinders in a carding machine that are covered with carding cloth
5. obsolete.
   an elf or sprite

Word History and Origins

Origin of urchin¹

1300–50; Middle English urchun, urchon hedgehog < Old North French ( h ) erichon, Old French heriçun < Vulgar Latin *hēriciōn- (stem of *hēriciō ), equivalent to Latin ēric ( ius ) hedgehog + -iōn- -ion

Word History and Origins

Origin of urchin¹

C13: urchon , from Old French heriçon, from Latin ēricius hedgehog, from ēr, related to Greek khēr hedgehog

Example Sentences

Not to mention, you could step on a stingray or a sea urchin.

From Los Angeles Times

The spike proteins are the little points that emerge out of the coronavirus, like spines jutting from a sea urchin, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus uses them to infect a patient's cells.

From Salon

"That transition is attributed to a marine heat wave, urchin overgrazing, historical extirpation of the sea otter and recent mass mortality of the sunflower star. Digging even deeper, the sunflower star demise was itself driven by two stressors: a sea star wasting disease epidemic and a marine heat wave."

From Science Daily

"A classic example of multiple stressors causing a regime shift is the transition from kelp forests to urchin barrens in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of North America," Meunier said.

From Science Daily

Ninety-five percent of Northern California’s kelp forest has been displaced by sea urchin “barrens” since the West Coast’s marine heat wave in 2014, ’15 and ’16, when water temperature averaged 7 degrees above normal.

From Los Angeles Times