Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word hedgehog. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word hedgehog, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say hedgehog in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word hedgehog you have here. The definition of the word hedgehog will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofhedgehog, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
A small mammal, of the family Erinaceidae or subfamily Erinaceinae. (spiny hedgehogs, the latter characterized by their spiny back and often by the habit of rolling up into a ball when attacked.)
[L]ike Hedg-hogs vvhich / Lye tumbling in my bare-foote vvay, and mount / Their pricks at my foot-fall: ſometime am I / All vvound vvith Adders, vvho vvith clouen tongues / Doe hiſſe me into madneſſe: […]
(US) Any of several spiny mammals, such as the porcupine, that are similar to the hedgehog.
2022 March 21, Bill Chappell, “SWIFT, hedgehog, MiG: Here's a guide to the terms of war in Ukraine”, in SPECIAL SERIES: Ukraine invasion — explained, NPR, retrieved 2022-03-21:
Ukrainian civilians have been DIY-ing hedgehogs, welding two bars or beams at an angle to make a cross and then adding a third to ensure it holds its shape even if it's knocked over.
(Australia) A type of chocolate cake (or slice), somewhat similar to an American brownie.
2005, Paul Mitchell, The Favourite, Frank Moorhouse, The Best Australian Stories 2005, page 145,
There are hedgehogs with sultanas as well as breadcrumbs, carrot cakes and fruitcakes and banana walnut loaves.
2008, Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend, unnumbered page:
I am so flustered that I order a vanilla slice instead of hedgehog.
2009, Adam Shand, The Skull: Informers, Hit Men and Australia's Toughest Cop, page 199:
His wife had made a hedgehog cake and he offered some but Murphy refused – his mouth was so dry with terror he couldn′t swallow.
A form of dredging machine.
1868, “Dredging”, in Charles Tomlinson, editor, Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, Mining, and Engineering, volume 1, page 520:
The first machines merely loosened, but did not raise the stuff, a scouring being afterwards effected by means of sluices. These machines consisted of large bars or prongs placed vertically in a frame, and being fastened to a barge placed in the line of the sluices, the whole was inpelled forward by the current, thereby scouring the bed. Such a machine, called a hedgehog, is still used in Lincolnshire.
Hedgehogging means — let us call a spade a spade — that we're were encircled: It's something that has been forced upon us, a predicament from which we ought to try to escape as fast as possible.
2012, Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Gene Mueller, Hitler's Commanders, →ISBN:
Luettwitz hedgehogged his regiment and held his positions until the rest of the division arrived two days later.
2007, Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps, →ISBN:
During the night of May 27 the 90th Light Division hedgehogged south of El Adem.
2008, Antonia Quirke, Choking on Marlon Brando, →ISBN:
All around were styrofoam cups hedgehogged with butts, and the threebar electric heater was encrusted with bits of charcoaled tobacco and frazzled stands of hair where people had stooped down to spark up.
2008, Max Hennessy, Back to Battle, →ISBN, page 300:
The walls were pockmarked with fragments of stone and hedgehogged with jagged daggers of glass, while in the street below there were sickening splodges on the pavement which a workman was covering with sawdust.
2014, George Ryder, Last Action Zero, →ISBN, page 39:
I think they're from different faculties,” I reply, taking a step back to peruse the table filled with assorted snacks, my hand hovering over the hedgehogged tray of cheese and pineapple cocktail sticks.
You try for his head, but he's hedgehogged round now, elbows beside his ears and you can't get him.
2011, Edwin Thomas, The Blighted Cliffs, →ISBN, page 13:
I stayed hedgehogged in my ball, listening for movement and trying to ignore the cramp in my legs, the ache in my gut and — encore — the throbbing in my temples.
2014, Robert Ryan, The Dead Can Wait, →ISBN, page 287:
The dead man was lying on a pile of the blankets, curled up, his hands interlocked behind his head, knees drawn up to his chest. Hedgehogged, just like the others.