PORCUPINE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does porcupine mean? 

• PORCUPINE (noun)
  The noun PORCUPINE has 1 sense:

1. relatively large rodents with sharp erectile bristles mingled with the fur

  Familiarity information: PORCUPINE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PORCUPINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relatively large rodents with sharp erectile bristles mingled with the fur

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

hedgehog; porcupine

Hypernyms ("porcupine" is a kind of...):

gnawer; rodent (relatively small placental mammals having a single pair of constantly growing incisor teeth specialized for gnawing)

Meronyms (parts of "porcupine"):

quill (a stiff hollow protective spine on a porcupine or hedgehog)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "porcupine"):

Old World porcupine (terrestrial porcupine)

New World porcupine (arboreal porcupine)

 Context examples 

He stalked the quarry and found it to be a porcupine, standing upright against a tree and trying his teeth on the bark.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Well, don't make a porcupine of yourself, it isn't becoming.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Bellying forward to the edge of the clearing, he found Hans, lying on his face, feathered with arrows like a porcupine.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I am quite a fretful porcupine.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We saw many small animals, such as porcupines, a scaly ant-eater, and a wild pig, piebald in color and with long curved tusks.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not quite entirely had the porcupine unrolled when it discovered its enemy.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Finding at last, however, that, although I had been all this time a very porcupine or hedgehog, bristling all over with determination, I had effected nothing, it began to occur to me that perhaps Dora's mind was already formed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With a nervous, shrinking paw, One Eye stretched out the porcupine to its full length and turned it over on its back.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Everything had happened at once—the blow, the counter-blow, the squeal of agony from the porcupine, the big cat's squall of sudden hurt and astonishment.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He lay down and waited, while the porcupine grated its teeth and uttered grunts and sobs and occasional sharp little squeals.

(White Fang, by Jack London)