upthread = U = URL

urchin n.

See munchkin.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

URCHIN
A child, a little fellow; also a hedgehog.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Ur"chin (?), n. [OE. urchon, irchon, a hedgehog, OF. ire&cced;on, eri&cced;on, herion, herichon, F. h'erisson, a derivative fr. L. ericius, from er a hedgehog, for her; akin to Gr. . Cf. Herisson.]

1. Zool.

A hedgehog.

2. Zool.

A sea urchin. See Sea urchin.

3.

A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form a hedgehog.

"We 'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies."

Shak.

4.

A pert or roguish child; -- now commonly used only of a boy.

And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes Forever on watch ran off each with a prize. W. Howitt.

You did indeed dissemble, you urchin you; but where's the girl that won't dissemble for an husband? Goldsmith.

5.

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.

Knight.

Urchin fish Zool., a diodon.

 

© Webster 1913.


Ur"chin, a.

Rough; pricking; piercing.

[R.] "Helping all urchin blasts."

Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.

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