ferret

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
“
I've only read of one case where a ferret was accused of attacking an infant, and after the animal was disposed of it was determined that the house had a rat infestation and rats had actually attacked the child.

View all »
Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun A weasellike, usually albino mammal (Mustela putorius furo) related to the polecat and often trained to hunt rats or rabbits.
  2. noun A black-footed ferret.
  3. transitive verb To hunt (rabbits, for example) with ferrets.
6 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Lysandros was sharply featured, like a ferret, and his piercing blue eyes reminded Phidestros of his father's eyes. —  Carr, John F, Kalvan Kingmaker (v1.0) (html).html
  • This one was small and sleek as a ferret, dark-skinned and bearded. —  F ;SF - vol 101 issue 01 - July 2001
  • Sometimes when the ferret is put under a boarded floor, all the Rats will run together and pack themselves in a heap at the end of a joist. —  Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher
  • Whenever a ferret is severely bitten by a Rat the best course to take immediately you get it home is to bathe the wound in clean luke-warm water. —  Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher
  • Nor did his face have a great deal to recommend it: he looked like a ferret, with narrow, close-set eyes, a beak of a nose, and a wildly disorderly mustache And he was looking for the two Englishmen. —  AnalogSFF,May2006
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged ferret

Stats

This word has been looked up 118 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English furet, ferret, from Old French furet, from Vulgar Latin *fūrittus, diminutive of Latin fūr, thief; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Probably alteration of Italian fioretti, floss silk, pl. of fioretto, diminutive of fiore, flower, from Latin flōs, flōr-, flower; see bhel-3 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English also ferrette; from Middle English feret, ferette, fferet, also foret, forette, forytt, later furette (the vowel e in first syllable is due to the lack of stress—the word being accented in Middle English on the second syllable—or perhaps to simulation of Latin fera, a wild animal) (= Middle Dutch furet, foret, ferret, fret, Dutch fret = German frett, usually in diminutive frettchen), from Old French furet, French furet = Italian furetto, from Middle Latin furetus, also spelled furectus (also, after Old French, foretta), a ferret, a diminutive of the earlier Middle Latin furo (n-), a ferret (later Old Spanish furon, Spanish huron = Portuguese furão = Old French furon, a ferret), these names, as well as Middle Latin furunculus, furuncus, furus, being applied to the ferret and other animals of the weasel kind, in allusion to their slyness and craftiness, from Latin fur, a thief, diminutive furunculus, a petty thief. Cf. Anglo-Saxon mearth, a marten, glossed by Middle Latin furo (n-), furunculus, and furuncus. The W. ffured, a ferret, which rests on ffur, wary, wily, crafty, wise, = Breton fur, crafty, wise, may have been suggested (with its verb ffuredu, ferret out) by the English and Roman forms. Other alleged Celtic forms do not appear.
  2. from Middle English *fereten, fyrretten, from Old French fureter, French fureter, hunt with a ferret, ferret, search, ransack, = Italian ferettare, furettare (obsolete), ferret or hunt in holes, grope, fumble; from the noun.
  3. from Italian fioretto, a little flower, flower-work upon lace or embroidery, coarse ferret-silk, = French fleuret, floret-silk, diminutive of Italian fiore = French fieur, a flower: see fioret, flower.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈfɛrɛt/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

phrenology · plussed · brilliancy · dreamers · brit

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

spell it rite · britney · bunda · settii · aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile