Definition of URCHIN

urchin

Meanings

Plural: urchins

Noun

  • poor and often mischievous city child
  • A mischievous child.
  • A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.
  • A sea urchin.
  • 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.
  • A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
  • A hedgehog.
  • A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.

Origin / Etymology

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.

Scrabble Score: 11

urchin is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
urchin is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
urchin is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 13

urchin is a valid Words With Friends word