Definition of "urchin"

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.

1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 7, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers

And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes / Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.

a. 1879, William Howitt, The Wind in a Frolic

Here we have a carding-engine, with the drum surmounted with urchin or squirrel cards […]

1836, Andrew Ure, The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain […]

We'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iv]