PORCUPINE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Porcupine

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/pˈɔrkjəpˌaɪn/ Listen

noun

Porcupine n.

1.

(Zool.) Any Old Word rodent of the genus Hystrix, having the back covered with long, sharp, erectile spines or quills, sometimes a foot long. The common species of Europe and Asia (Hystrix cristata) is the best known.

2.

(Zool.) Any species of Erethizon and related genera, native of America. They are related to the true porcupines, but have shorter spines, and are arboreal in their habits. The Canada porcupine (Erethizon dorsatus) is a well known species.

Porcupine ant-eater (Zool.), the echidna.

Porcupine crab (Zool.), a large spiny Japanese crab (Acantholithodes hystrix).

Porcupine disease (Med.). See Ichthyosis.

Porcupine fish (Zool.), any plectognath fish having the body covered with spines which become erect when the body is inflated. See Diodon, and Globefish.

Porcupine grass (Bot.), a grass (Stipa spartea) with grains bearing a stout twisted awn, which, by coiling and uncoiling through changes in moisture, propels the sharp-pointed and barbellate grain into the wool and flesh of sheep. It is found from Illinois westward.

Porcupine wood (Bot.), the hard outer wood of the cocoa palm; so called because, when cut horizontally, the markings of the wood resemble the quills of a porcupine.

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Etymology of 'Porcupine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Porcupine" Quotes from Famous Books

... so long as game could be found within a circuit of ten or twelve miles, and then, subsistence failing, removed to another spot. Early in the winter, they hunted the beaver and the Canada porcupine; and, later, in the season of deep snows, chased ...

— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman

... winter landscape. Gay belts of green, blue, red, or yellow enriched the waists of their thick overcoats. Their scarlet leggings were laced up with green ribbons. Their moccasins were gorgeously embroidered with dyed porcupine quills. Their caps of beaver or martin were sometimes tied down over their ears with vivid handkerchiefs of silk. The habitants were rougher and more sombre in their dress. A black homespun coat, gray leggings, gray woollen ...

— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... alone with my roll of blankets on my back. I was very hot and I drank every spring dry along the route. I reached the top of Slide about two o'clock and was glad after all to have the mountain all to myself. It is very grand. I made myself a snug camp under a shelving rock. Every porcupine on the mountain called on me during the night, but I slept fairly well. I stayed till noon on Sunday, when I went down to Dutchers. I made the trip easily and without fatigue, tramping 13 miles that hot Saturday ...

— My Boyhood • John Burroughs

... at one end to a reservoir, was the invention of another American, John Stevens, in 1804. This boiler was actually employed to generate steam for running a steamboat on the Hudson River, but like all the "porcupine" boilers, of which type it was the first, it did not have the elements of a ...

— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

... words, the human porcupine is the person considered at the beginning of this one-sided discussion who, to escape the terrible catastrophe of confronting his own inner vacuum, will make friends with the most hideous bore. This creature, however, is much more rare than the misanthropic Schopenhauer ...

— The Joyful Heart • Robert Haven Schauffler

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