porcupine

Any rodent with quills on its body, belonging to either of two families: Old World porcupines (family Hystricidae), terrestrial in habit and having long black-and-white quills; or New World porcupines (family Erethizontidae), tree-dwelling, with prehensile tails and much shorter quills.

Porcupine

River of the Yukon Territory and Alaska, North America; 720 km/450 mi long. Rising in the Yukon on the Eagle Plain, west of the Mackenzie Mountains, it flows to the north and then southwest, passing Old Crow, a Native Canadian Loucheux (Kutchin) fur trapping community, before entering Alaska to join the Yukon River at Fort Yukon, 230 km/140 mi northeast of Fairbanks. The Porcupine is one of the Yukon's major tributaries, and has seen some mining of placer gold deposits (alluvial concentrations).

porcupine

In business, an agreement between a company and its suppliers, customers, or other parties that would make it difficult for a company mounting a successful takeover to integrate the target into its operation.