porcupine

«porcupine» in Mova's school dictionary: a large rodent covered in long sharp spines called… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a porcupine, porcupines)

meaning for a pupil

1) A porcupine is a large rodent covered in long sharp spines called quills, which protect it from enemies. tree →

2) There are two main groups: tree-climbing porcupines in the Americas and ground-living ones in Africa, Asia and southern Europe. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons about animal adaptations, the porcupine shows defence: its quills come out easily and stick into a predator. In stories a porcupine is prickly, grumpy or hard to hug. Phrases: porcupine quills, prickly as a porcupine.

examples

• A porcupine raises its quills when it feels scared. tree →
• The dog came home with porcupine quills in its nose. tree →
• Porcupines eat bark, leaves and fruit. tree →
• A baby porcupine is called a porcupette. tree →
• The porcupine climbed a tree to escape the fox. tree →
• Porcupines cannot shoot their quills, despite the myth. tree →
• My little brother's hair stuck up like a porcupine after his nap. tree →
• We read a story about a porcupine who wanted a hug. tree →
• A Porcupine was looking for a good home. tree →

note

Countable: one porcupine, two porcupines. Myth: porcupines do not shoot or throw their quills; the quills come off when touched. Do not confuse with a hedgehog (smaller, an insectivore not a rodent, with short spines, lives in the UK and Europe) or an echidna (an Australian egg-laying mammal with spines). The name comes from old words meaning «spiny pig», though it is not a pig.

In the corpora

• Porcupines cannot shoot their quills; the barbed quills come out easily when touched and stick into the attacker.
• A North American porcupine has about 30,000 quills, and it rattles them and stamps as a warning first.
• The American and the African and Asian porcupines are only distant relatives, and many scientists think they grew quills separately.
• Porcupines can't shoot their quills; the quills come loose easily when touched and stick into an attacker.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «porcupine» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.