hedgehog
n. countablen. a small animal with sharp spines on its back that rolls into a ball for protection. You often see them in gardens at night during the summer.
n. a small, nocturnal insectivorous mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, characterised by a coat of stiff spines and the ability to roll into a tight ball when threatened.
A hedgehog is sleeping under the pile of leaves.
The gardener left a small gap in the fence to allow the local hedgehog population to move between yards safely.
While the fox knows many things, the hedgehog knows one big thing — a philosophical distinction often used to describe thinkers who view the world through a single, defining lens.
From Middle English heyghoge; equivalent to hedge + hog. Eclipsed non-native Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog”), from Old French hirchoun, herichon (“hedgehog”); and displaced earlier Middle English il, from Old English īl, iġil (“hedgehog”). In the philosophical sense, from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin. Compare typologically Korean 고슴도치 (goseumdochi) (<<+ Middle Korean 돝 (twoth, “pig, swine”)).