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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
urchin
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
sea urchin
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
egg
▪ But such a mechanism would not explain the increase in nuclear calcium that occurs following activation of lymphocytes or sea urchin eggs.
▪ Thousands of fertilized sea urchin eggs, starfish and blue clams returned to Earth with the astronauts.
▪ Studies on sea urchin eggs seem to argue against a role for InsP 3 in fertilization.
▪ The RYRs identified in neurons and sea urchin eggs seem to resemble the cardiac RYR2.
sea
▪ Unfortunately they feed exclusively upon live echinoderms attacking starfishes and sea urchins and can not be acclimatised to substitute foods.
▪ But please, hold the sea urchin.
▪ In either case, the sea urchins could lose a major source of food.
▪ Thousands of fertilized sea urchin eggs, starfish and blue clams returned to Earth with the astronauts.
▪ Cassiduloid sea urchin, Pygurus costatus, Jurassic.
▪ I know there are sharks and moray eels and barracuda and spiny sea urchins.
▪ More rarely, I watched them diving in the sea for sea urchins or other easy prey.
street
▪ She held the lapels of her little jacket and sauntered like a street urchin.
▪ She would even bring street urchins into the presidential palace to bathe them and treat their scabies and give them a meal.
▪ The ball flew towards the travellers, and one of the street urchins collided with the Doctor.
▪ It was as if a fire hydrant burst directly upon a group of thirsty street urchins.
▪ Suddenly he was surrounded by ten or a dozen street urchins in rags, imploring him to be generous.
▪ On South Street, from the direction of the Governors Island ferry, came another flock of street urchins.
▪ On the nearby rooftops street urchins were dancing frantically to the music.
▪ This time around, it is young Stevie Taggart, a former street urchin, who tells the tale.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An elf and an urchin, she had seen Holly.
▪ I know there are sharks and moray eels and barracuda and spiny sea urchins.
▪ In either case, the sea urchins could lose a major source of food.
▪ She would even bring street urchins into the presidential palace to bathe them and treat their scabies and give them a meal.
▪ The ball flew towards the travellers, and one of the street urchins collided with the Doctor.
▪ Thousands of fertilized sea urchin eggs, starfish and blue clams returned to Earth with the astronauts.
▪ Water-living animals, such as fish, molluscs, sea urchins and corals, are much more promising candidates for preservation.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Urchin

Urchin \Ur"chin\, a. Rough; pricking; piercing. [R.] ``Helping all urchin blasts.''
--Milton.

Urchin

Urchin \Ur"chin\ ([^u]"ch[i^]n), n. [OE. urchon, irchon, a hedgehog, OF. ire[,c]on, eri[,c]on, heri[,c]on, herichon, F. h['e]risson, a derivative fr. L. ericius, from er a hedgehog, for her; akin to Gr. chh`r. Cf. Herisson.]

  1. (Zo["o]l.) A hedgehog.

  2. (Zo["o]l.) 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 (Zo["o]l.), a diodon.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
urchin

c.1300, yrichon "hedgehog," from Old North French *irechon (cognates: Picard irechon, Walloon ireson, Hainaut hirchon), from Old French herichun "hedgehog" (Modern French hérisson), formed with diminutive suffix -on + Vulgar Latin *hericionem, from Latin ericius "hedgehog," enlarged form of er, originally *her, from PIE root *ghers- "to bristle" (cognates: Greek kheros "hedgehog;" see horror).\n

\nStill used for "hedgehog" in non-standard speech in Cumbria, Yorkshire, Shropshire. Applied throughout 16c. to people whose appearance or behavior suggested hedgehogs, from hunchbacks (1520s) to goblins (1580s) to bad girls (1530s); meaning "poorly or raggedly clothed youngster" emerged 1550s, but was not in frequent use until after c.1780. Sea urchin is recorded from 1590s (a 19c. Newfoundland name for them was whore's eggs); Johnson describes it as "a kind of crabfish that has prickles instead of feet."

Wiktionary
urchin

n. 1 A mischievous child. 2 A street kid, a child from a poor neighborhood. 3 (context archaic English) A hedgehog. 4 A sea urchin. 5 A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog. 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.

WordNet
urchin

n. poor and often mischievous city child

Wikipedia
Urchin (band)

Urchin (originally Evil Ways) were an English hard rock band.

Urchin (film)

Urchin is a 2007 film about a homeless boy living in a New York City underground mole people community called Scum-City.

Urchin (album)

Urchin is the first solo album by Inga Liljeström. It was independently released in 1998 under the name of “Inga.” It was re-released through Groovescooter Records in 2007.

Urchin (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the urchin is a type of monster.

Urchin

Urchin or urcheon is the Middle English term for " hedgehog". As such, it is applied to many things that take a similar form to a hedgehog:

  • Street children, homeless children who live on the street
  • Sea urchins are spiny sea creatures that are round and prickly like hedgehogs
  • In old theater, urchin was a common name for an elf or fairy that took on a prickly appearance
  • The word urcheon is used to refer to the hedgehog in heraldry

It may also refer to:

  • Urchin (film), a 2007 film about a homeless boy living underground, by John Harlacher
  • HMS Urchin, the name of four ships of the British Royal Navy
  • Urchin Software Corporation, a US web analytics company owned by Google
    • Urchin (software), a series of web analytics developed by the Urchin Software Corporation (now Google Analytics)
  • Urchin (band), a band led by Dave Murray and Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden
  • Urchin (detonator), code name for the neutron generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs
  • Urchin, the squirrel protagonist in The Mistmantle Chronicles book series
  • Sound of Urchin, an eclectic alternative rock band
  • Urchin, an enemy in the 1990 video game Super Mario World
  • The Urchins, English hooligan firm associated with Liverpool F.C.
Urchin (software)

Urchin was a web statistics analysis program developed by Urchin Software Corporation. Urchin is used to analyze web server log file content and display the traffic information on that website based upon the log data. Sales of Urchin products ended on March 28, 2012.

Urchin software can be run in two different data collection modes: log file analyzer or hybrid. As a log file analyzer, Urchin processes web server log files in a variety of log file formats. Custom file formats can also be defined. As a hybrid, Urchin combines page tags with log file data to eradicate the limitations of each data collection method in isolation. The result is more accurate web visitor data.

Urchin became one of the more popular solutions for website traffic analysis, particularly with ISPs and web hosting providers. This was largely due to its scalability in performance and pricing model.

Urchin Software Corp. was acquired by Google in April 2005, forming Google Analytics. In April 2008, Google released Urchin 6. In February 2009, Google released Urchin 6.5, integrating AdWords. Urchin 7 was released in September 2010 and included 64-bit support, a new UI, and event tracking, among other features.

Google discontinued the product and sales ended on March 28, 2012.

Usage examples of "urchin".

Still doubtful, Alec pulled the smallest urchin gingerly from the bowl by one of its spines.

He bagged some urchins and sea cucumbers, but the crabs were elusive, and when he swam along the edge of the bay with his knife unsheathed to pry off the purple scallops, fierce currents threatened to drag him against the rocks.

Lindsay returned the compliment, taking in a hennaed urchin cut over straight brows and eyes the same muddy colour as the supermarket coffee.

Some rural urchins who had ambled back were inoculated and ready to prowl for zombies.

She had been leaving a plumassier in Oxford Street, having purchased a number of feathers to adorn a new bonnet, when a scruffy urchin ran past, snatching at her reticule.

It was almost a year since he had first seen her, surrounded by bemused merchants and urchins in the Sabzi Market, looking terrified.

He feels anemones and urchins and realizes with sudden sadness that this is the first time he has swum close enough to the seabed to sense its life, and it is almost certainly the last, and it is too dark to see.

It was just such lack of attention to detail which leads to downfall and, Ikey told himself, if a mistake of the same magnitude of neglect had occurred with one of his urchins, the young tooler would have been most severely punished.

And as the coughing urchin groans, and claps his hand to his mouth, distained is the snowball that drops unlaunched at his feet.

My little urchins on the rafts will drift away tonight, and Witchy will be with them.

Lexi loved the sea urchins that lurked like dark black blobs in the sea, and she never seemed to tire of watching the mullet and bream and wrasse swimming lazily by beneath their dangling feet.

Kat said between clenched teeth to the wrigglesome urchin next to her.

At each crossroads and turn, Lirenda was balked by piled-up snow, street stalls swarming with commerce and stopped carts, and racing urchins playing a northcountry game with flat sticks and a stitched leather ball.

It was an experiment of the Scientists to interfere with Scutari gastrulation, coaxing the blastulas that they had somehow acquired to develop more like sea urchins or Darghinni or even human beings.

The soldiers would not hesitate to round up the entire group, meting out whatever justice a band of Touched urchins could expect on a misty morning when a prince had just been murdered.