hedgehoggy

From hedgehog +‎ -y.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛd͡ʒhɒɡi/

hedgehoggy (comparative more hedgehoggy, superlative most hedgehoggy)

1. (informal) Of the nature of a hedgehog: externally repellent; difficult to get on with.
   • 1858, Motley, Corr., volume I, published 1889, page 266:

     ‘Why is it that we English, when we meet abroad, are so very friendly, and when we reappear in London are so very hedgyhoggy?’ I told her that the reason why there was no hedgehogginess on this occasion was because I was not an Englishman.

   • 1866, Ruskin, Eth. Dust, published 1883, page 101:

     So your hedgehoggy readers roll themselves over and over their Bibles, and declare that whatever sticks to their own spines is Scripture.

   • 1882, Spurgeon, Chr. World Pulpit, volume XXII, page 163:

     Get near some of those dear hedgehoggy brethren, and go and make a pillow of them.

2. (chiefly philosophy) With a worldview based on a single overarching idea.

   Antonym: foxy

   • 2000, Charles H. Kramer, Therapeutic Mastery: Becoming a More Creative and Effective Psychotherapist, Zeig Tucker & Theisen Publishers, →ISBN, page 76:

     For half a century, psychotherapy was dominated by hedgehoggy men who considered their style "normal," and women's foxy, emotional, flexible style "hysterical."

   • 2010 November 15, Bryan G. Norton, Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 233:

     The wary reader will at this point justifiably ask whether an endorsement of Hardin's model may commit us to the hedgehoggy, unidimensional thinking of apocalyptic ecologists and their IPAT equation, a position we found too rigid

• hedgehogginess

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Hedgehoggy, a.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 189, column 1.