porcupine
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of porcupine
1375–1425; late Middle English porcupyne, variant of porcapyne; replacing porke despyne < Middle French porc d'espine thorny pig. See pork, spine
Explanation
A porcupine is a prickly rodent, a round forest animal that's covered in sharp, protective quills. How do you pet a porcupine? Very, very carefully. Porcupine comes from Latin roots, porcus, "pig," and spina, "spine or quill." Fittingly, a regional name for the porcupine is "quill pig." The porcupine is famous for its spines, which become spikier when it's afraid or angry. Less well known is the fact that porcupines also clatter their teeth loudly as a warning — all the more reason for your dog to feel embarrassed after she ends up with a nose full of porcupine quills.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The next day I got up and went over to get in the shower and there was a porcupine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
Rick: The hotel pretty much just got the porcupine and left.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
BBC Scotland News understands bedding was discovered with porcupine quills in the straw.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025
So they co-created a paleontology college course, in which the only assignment for the entire semester was studying porcupine bones.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
I pointed with my lips across the fire to Minerva, who was absorbed in chewing through a bag of porcupine quills she’d harvested last week when we ran across its carcass.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
They lack the adorable charisma of chinchillas, porcupines, moles or rats, though.
From Salon ● May 11, 2025
The samples from the stall that contained the coronavirus also contained DNA from a variety of animals, including dogs, rabbits, hoary bamboo rats, Malayan porcupines and masked palm civets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2024
It is unclear whether bamboo rats or Malayan porcupines can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, the study authors wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2024
Other animals identified as a potential source of the pandemic were the masked palm civet, which was also associated with the Sars outbreak in 2003, as well as hoary bamboo rats and Malayan porcupines.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2024
The rabbits and the porcupines looked everywhere, except at each other.
From "Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust" by Eve Bunting
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
