hedgehogs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of hedgehog.

   Gardeners often welcome hedgehogs because they eat snails and other pests.

   During cold months, hedgehogs hibernate beneath piles of leaves and logs.

   Note

   One regular plural covers every kind of hedgehog, not just the spiny garden mammal. In US usage, hedgehogs can include porcupines and similar animals. In Australia it can mean pieces of a chocolate cake. In military history it names World War II anti-submarine mortars and, short for Czech hedgehogs, antitank obstacles built from steel rails. The same spelling serves the verb form, as in "it hedgehogs."

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of hedgehog.

   Note

   Behind the -s of the verb lie three different actions. A defending force hedgehogs when it relies on a hedgehog barricade. Something hedgehogs a surface when it sets it with spiky projections. A frightened creature hedgehogs, or hedgehogs itself, when it curls into a defensive ball. That last use works with or without an object. The barricade meaning rests on the steel-rail obstacle that the plural noun can also name.

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