squirrel

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“
Short of marrying an old, ill bajillionaire, sans a prenup, and leaving ripe banana peels on all the marble floors throughout your home, having a goal based on saving like a squirrel is a good start.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun Any of various arboreal rodents of the genus Sciurus and related genera of the family Sciuridae, having a long flexible bushy tail and including the fox squirrel, gray squirrel, and red squirrel. Also called tree squirrel.
  2. noun Any of various other rodents of the family Sciuridae, as the ground squirrel or the flying squirrel.
  3. noun The fur of one of these rodents.
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Examples (50)

  • The squirrel, when cornered, would try to bite the dogs, but the squirrel was an animal, with a limited program imprinted into its small brain. —  The Maine Massacre - Janwillem van de Wetering - Grijpstra-de Gier 07
  • If the squirrel is already dead, and if I run over it, will I be penalized for mutilating a corpse? —  Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com
  • Short of marrying an old, ill bajillionaire, sans a prenup, and leaving ripe banana peels on all the marble floors throughout your home, having a goal based on saving like a squirrel is a good start. —  Staff Blogs
  • To carry her plan into execution, it was necessary that the squirrel should be hers; and she resolved from the beginning, that as soon as a convenient opportunity should offer, she would try to buy him. —  Caleb in the Country
  • It is still better when three or four persons make up the party, as then the squirrel is assailed on all sides, and can find no resting-place, without seeing a black tube levelled upon him, and ready to send forth its deadly missile Some hunt the squirrel with shot-guns. —  The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fox ·  rabbit ·  raccoon ·  deer ·  otter ·  monkey ·  coyote ·  lizard ·  beaver ·  badger ·  rat ·  goat
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English squirel, from Anglo-Norman esquirel, from Vulgar Latin *scūriolus, diminutive of *scūrius, alteration of Latin sciūrus, from Greek skiouros : skiā, shadow + ourā, tail; see ors- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also squirril, squerrel, squirel, squiril; from Middle English squirel, squyrelle, scurel, swerelle, swyrelle, from Old French esquirel, escurel, escuirel, escureul, escureuil, escurieu, French écureuil = Provencal escurol = Spanish Portuguese esquilo (cf. Italian scojattolo, scojatto), from Middle Latin sciuriolus, sciurellus (also, after Roman, scuriolus, scurellius, escurellus, corruptly sirogrillus, cirogrillus, experiolus, asperiolus, etc.), diminutive of Latin sciurus, from Greek σκίουρος, a squirrel, literally ‘shadow-tailed,’ from σκιά, shadow, + οὐρά, tail. For the sense, cf. English dial. skug, a squirrel, literally ‘shade’: see skug.
 

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/ˈskwərɛl/
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