PORCUPINE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... if he didn't have someone to confide in right soon, he got me worked up to fever pitch. Now I've had to cool down. There isn't going to be any development. Our hair won't have to stand tip on end like the quills of the fretful porcupine. In so many words, Colon, it's ...

— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman

... their spined shells, which they captured from the schools of porcupine fish that swarmed in Penguin Deep, they gathered sea vegetation from the higher levels and trapped sea creatures. These were brought into the subterranean chamber where our glass ball now reposed. Then the chamber was emptied ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various

... thicker and darker, the ground more wet and swampy, and I found, as many grown people had found before me, that there was rather hard traveling in a journey after, riches. Suddenly I met in my way a large porcupine, who made himself still larger when he saw me, as a cross cat raises its back and makes tails at a dog. Fearing that he would shoot his sharp quills at me, I ran from him as fast as my tired ...

— McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... ponies!" cried Juan, rushing up to them, waving his arms, then running his fingers through his long black hair until it stood up like the quills of a porcupine. ...

— The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico • Frank Gee Patchin

... And he had his hope, for several creatures crossed the white patch, and each time the jackal was the first to see them. The round ears would suddenly prick forward, the sharp nose would twitch, and then Venning would dimly discover something down there in the uncertain light. A porcupine he made out, its quills gleaming and rustling as it went down to the water; then a great wart-pig with curved tusks; and next, after a long interval, a fine buck with long powerful horns. A water-buck ...

— In Search of the Okapi - A Story of Adventure in Central Africa • Ernest Glanville

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