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Urchin vs Homeless - What's the difference?

urchin | homeless |

As a noun urchin

is a mischievous child.

As an adjective homeless is

lacking a permanent place of residence.

urchin

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A mischievous child.
  • *
  • And like these fresh green things were the dozens of babies, tots, toddlers, noisy urchins , laughing girls, a whole multitude of children of one family. For Collier Brandt, the father of all this numerous progeny, was a Mormon with four wives.
  • A street kid, a child from a poor neighborhood.
  • * W. Howitt
  • And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes / Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.
  • (archaic) A hedgehog.
  • * before 1400 ,
  • A sea urchin.
  • A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form a hedgehog.
  • * Shakespeare
  • We'll dress [them] like urchins , ouphes, and fairies.
  • One of a pair in a series of small card cylinders arranged around a carding drum; so called from its fancied resemblance to the hedgehog.
  • (Knight)

    homeless

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Lacking a permanent place of residence.
  • Whenever I pass the park, I see the homeless people sleeping on the benches.

    Derived terms

    * homeless dumping * homeless shelter * homelessness

    See also

    * destitute * bum * unhoused * transient