Meaning

A mischievous child..

Definitions by Sense

1. A mischievous child.
2. A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets.
3. A sea urchin.
4. 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.
5. (historical) A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
6. (obsolete) A hedgehog.
7. (obsolete) A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog.

Example Sentences

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.

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

Here we have a carding-engine, with the drum surmounted with urchin or squirrel cards[…]

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

Word Forms

• urchins
• urchon

Related Words

When Should You Use Urchin?

Use urchin when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions