# hedgehog

Pronunciation: US say "HEJ-hawg" /ˈhɛd͡ʒ.hɔɡ/; UK/AUS say "HEJ-hog" /ˈhɛd͡ʒ.hɒɡ/

## Noun

1. A small spiny-backed mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, native to Afro-Eurasia, that often rolls into a ball when threatened.
   - Simple: A small animal with sharp spines on its back that rolls into a ball when scared.
   - _A hedgehog rolled into a spiny ball as the fox approached._
   - _In the garden, hedgehogs hunt slugs and beetles after dark._
2. A porcupine or other spiny mammal that resembles the true hedgehog. *(US)*
   - Simple: Any spiny animal, like a porcupine, that looks a lot like a hedgehog.
   - _A hedgehog had climbed onto the porch roof and was gnawing the cedar shingles._
   - _The dog came home with quills in its nose after tangling with a hedgehog._
3. A rich chocolate cake or slice that has some resemblance to an American brownie. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: A rich chocolate slice, much like a brownie.
   - _The café served a dense hedgehog topped with chocolate icing._
   - _He crushed cookies and cocoa together to make a no-bake hedgehog._
6. A party-food arrangement of a halved melon or potato studded with cocktail sticks of cheese and pineapple.
   - Simple: A party snack made by sticking cheese and pineapple on small sticks into half a melon.
   - _She carried out a hedgehog bristling with cocktail sticks of cheddar and pineapple._
   - _No retro buffet felt complete without a foil-covered hedgehog of cheese and pineapple._
7. A person who views the world through a single, overarching idea or philosophy.
   - Simple: A person who sees the world through one big main idea.
   - _She's a hedgehog, fitting every new fact into her grand unifying theory._
   - _Great hedgehogs build entire systems of thought around one central conviction._
8. Ellipsis of Czech hedgehog. — Ellipsis of Czech hedgehog (“an antitank obstacle constructed from three steel rails”).
   - Simple: Ellipsis of Czech hedgehog. Use it for the metal anti-tank barrier made of crossed beams.
   - _Crews dragged a hedgehog across the road to block the advancing column._
   - _The shoreline bristled with one rusting hedgehog after another._
9. A World War II anti-submarine weapon that launched a spread of small bombs ahead of a ship to explode underwater against submerged subs. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A World War II ship weapon that fired many small bombs into the sea to hit submarines.
   - _The escort's hedgehog scattered a ring of charges ahead of the bow._
   - _Crews reloaded the hedgehog after every attack run on the U-boat._
10. An edible woodland mushroom, Hydnum repandum, with soft spines under its cap in place of gills.
   - Simple: An edible wild mushroom with soft spines under its cap instead of gills.
   - _Foragers prize the hedgehog because worms rarely spoil it._
   - _A cluster of hedgehogs pushed up through the mossy forest floor._
12. A type of dredging machine, used to clear material from the bed of a waterway.
   - Simple: A kind of machine used to scoop mud and waste from the bottom of rivers.
   - _Workers ran the hedgehog along the canal to lift years of silt._
   - _The port kept a hedgehog busy deepening the approach channel._
13. A type of transformer with an open magnetic circuit whose iron-wire core ends fan outward, giving it a bristling, spiky look.
   - Simple: An old type of electrical transformer whose iron wires stick out and look spiky.
   - _The bristling iron ends made the hedgehog easy to spot among the old gear._
   - _Early electricians wound their coils around a hedgehog whose core spread out at each end._
14. A type of plane curve in differential geometry, formed as the envelope of a family of lines.
   - Simple: A type of curve studied in advanced geometry, made from many straight lines.
   - _The textbook illustrated a hedgehog with several inward-pointing cusps._
   - _Each choice of support function traces out a different hedgehog in the plane._
15. A medick, Medicago intertexta, whose seed pods are armed with short spines.
   - Simple: A clover-like plant whose seed pods are covered in short spines.
   - _The botanist pressed a hedgehog between sheets of paper for the collection._
   - _Spiny pods make the hedgehog easy to identify in a meadow._
16. A shrub native to South Africa, of the species Retzia capensis.
   - Simple: A stiff-leaved shrub that grows in South Africa.
   - _The hedgehog clings to rocky slopes in the Cape region._
   - _Botanists rarely find the hedgehog growing outside South Africa._

## Verb

4. To protect oneself by curling the body into a tight ball.
   - Simple: To roll your body up into a tight ball to stay safe.
   - _Threatened by the dogs, the small animal will hedgehog within seconds._
   - _The boxer hedgehogged against the ropes, shielding his head from the blows._
5. To fit or cover with spiky projections like a hedgehog's quills.
   - Simple: To cover something with sharp spikes that stick out in all directions.
   - _Defenders hedgehog the ramparts with rows of sharpened stakes._
   - _The sculptor hedgehogged the steel sphere with hundreds of jutting rods._
11. To take up an all-around defensive position, using barricades arranged like a hedgehog's spines.
   - Simple: To defend a position from every side at once, like a barricade of spikes.
   - _Cut off from the main army, the battalion chose to hedgehog and wait for relief._
   - _The defenders hedgehogged across three farms, each strongpoint covering the others._

## Origin

From Middle English heyghoge, equivalent to hedge + hog; it replaced the earlier non-native Middle English yrchoun (from Old French hirchoun) and displaced the still older Middle English il (from Old English īl, iġil). In its philosophical sense, it comes from Isaiah Berlin's 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hedgehog (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).