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A hedgehog


From hedge +‎ hog.



hedgehog ‎(plural hedgehogs)

  1. A small mammal, of the subfamily Erinaceinae, characterized by its spiny back and by its habit of rolling itself into a ball when attacked.
  2. A type of moveable military barricade made from crossed logs or steel bars, laced with barbed wire, used to damage or impede tanks and vehicles; Czech hedgehog.
  3. The nickname for a spigot mortar-type of depth charge weapon from World War II that simultaneously fires a number of explosives into the water to create a pattern of underwater explosions intended to attack submerged submarines.
  4. (Australia) A type of chocolate cake (or slice), somewhat similar to an American brownie.
    • 2005, Paul Mitchell, The Favourite, Frank Moorhouse, The Best Australian Stories 2005, page 145,
      There are hedgehogs with sultanas as well as breadcrumbs, carrot cakes and fruitcakes and banana walnut loaves.
    • 2008, Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend, unnumbered page,
      I am so flustered that I order a vanilla slice instead of hedgehog.
    • 2009, Adam Shand, The Skull: Informers, Hit Men and Australia's Toughest Cop, page 199,
      His wife had made a hedgehog cake and he offered some but Murphy refused – his mouth was so dry with terror he couldn′t swallow.
  5. A form of dredging machine.
    • 1868, "Dredging," article in Charles Tomlinson (editor), Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, Mining, and Engineering, Volume 1, page 520,
      The first machines merely loosened, but did not raise the stuff, a scouring being afterwards effected by means of sluices. These machines consisted of large bars or prongs placed vertically in a frame, and being fastened to a barge placed in the line of the sluices, the whole was inpelled forward by the current, thereby scouring the bed. Such a machine, called a hedgehog, is still used in Lincolnshire.
  6. The flowering plant Medicago intertexta, the pods of which are armed with short spines.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Loudon to this entry?)
  7. A kind of electrical transformer with open magnetic circuit, the ends of the iron wire core being turned outward and presenting a bristling appearance.


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