HEDGEHOG

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small nocturnal Old World mammal covered with both hair and protective spines

Synonyms:

Erinaceus europaeus; Erinaceus europeaeus; hedgehog

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hedgehog" is a kind of...):

insectivore (small insect-eating mainly nocturnal terrestrial or fossorial mammals)

Meronyms (parts of "hedgehog"):

quill (a stiff hollow protective spine on a porcupine or hedgehog)

Holonyms ("hedgehog" is a member of...):

Erinaceus; genus Erinaceus (type genus of the family Erinaceidae: hedgehogs)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Relatively large rodents with sharp erectile bristles mingled with the fur

Synonyms:

hedgehog; porcupine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hedgehog" is a kind of...):

gnawer; rodent (relatively small placental mammals having a single pair of constantly growing incisor teeth specialized for gnawing)

Meronyms (parts of "hedgehog"):

quill (a stiff hollow protective spine on a porcupine or hedgehog)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hedgehog"):

Old World porcupine (terrestrial porcupine)

New World porcupine (arboreal porcupine)

Credits

Context examples:

To accomplish that, they developed a gel containing more hedgehog molecules that could be applied to broken bones.

(Protein Discovery Could Help Heal Bones in Diabetics, VOA)

The development of basal cell carcinoma is associated with constitutive activation of sonic hedgehog signaling.

(Basal Cell Carcinoma Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

The absence of Cc2d2a affected genes and proteins involved in the development of many mouse tissues, including sonic hedgehog, a key signaling protein.

(Protein critical to cilia development, NIH)

Desert hedgehog protein (396 aa, ~344 kDa) is encoded by the human DHH gene.

(Desert Hedgehog Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

This allele, which encodes desert hedgehog protein, is involved in the regulation of both male gonadal differentiation and perineurial development.

(DHH wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Finding at last, however, that, although I had been all this time a very porcupine or hedgehog, bristling all over with determination, I had effected nothing, it began to occur to me that perhaps Dora's mind was already formed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The hedgehog signaling pathway is normally active during neuronal development in embryos and quiescent in adult cells.

(IPI-609, NCI Thesaurus)

Sonic hedgehog binding to Patched appears to activate the 7-transmembrane protein Smoothened by release from Patched inhibition.

(Patched, NCI Thesaurus)

They discovered that they could improve hedgehog proteins' signaling by increasing their numbers.