spine pig

plural spine pigs

1. Porcupine.

   "Spine-swine (the edgehog misnamed hedgehog)," echidna, echinoderm, rhino, the spine pig or porcupine — "everything is battle-dressed"; [...]

   1953, Randall Jarrell, Poetry and the age

   2 more examples

   Hares are fairly common, so also is the fretful porcupine, who, if he finds his way into your kitchen-garden, will play havoc with your pet vegetables. He is accounted delicate eating, this 'spine pig,' as the natives call him; [...]

   1884, James Hogg, Florence Marryat, London society

   Spine pig, spine pig, say me true, how your flesh befits a you so articulate in joint as to sharpen to your point. I've kept dogs ten thousand days; dodge my fears and play my joys out there in the forest's maze, [...]

   2006, Wayne Clifford, The Book of Were