squirrel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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. n. Any of various other rodents of the family Sciuridae, as the ground squirrel or the flying squirrel.
3. n. The fur of one of these rodents.
4. v. To hide or store: squirreled away her money.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A rodent quadruped of the family Sciuridæ and genus Sciurus, originally and specifically Sciurus vulgaris of Europe. Squirrels have pointed ears and a long bushy tail; they are of active arboreal habits, and are able to sit up on their hind quarters and use the fore paws like hands. S. vulgaris, called in England skug, is a squirrel 8 or 10 inches long (the tail being nearly as much more), with an elegant reddish-brown coat, white below, and the ears tufted or penciled. It lives in trees, is very agile and graceful in its movements, feeds on all kinds of small hard fruits, nests in a hole, hibernates to some extent in the colder latitudes, and brings forth usually three or four young. It is readily tamed, and makes an interesting pet. The North American squirrel nearest to this one is the chickaree, or red squirrel, S. hudsonius. (See cut under chickaree.) The common gray squirrel of the United States is S. carolinensis. (See cut under Sciurus.) Fox- or cat-squirrels are several large red, gray, or black species of North America, (See cut under fox-squirrel.) North America (including Mexico and Central America) is very rich in squirrels; southern Asia and Africa are less rich, while South America and Europe have each but a single species of Sciurus proper. In the extension of the name squirrel to other genera of the family, the species of Tamias, Spermophilus, and Cynomys are distinguished as ground-squirrels or prairie-squirrels, and some of them are also called marmot-squirrels (see cuts under chipmunk, Spermophilus, owl, and prairie-dog); those of Sciuropterus and Pteromys are flying-squirrels (see cuts under flying-squirrel and Sciuropterus). The scale-tailed squirrels of Africa belong to a different family, Anomaluridæ. (See cut under Anomaluridæ.) Certain Australian marsupials, as phalangers or petaurists, which resemble squirrels, are improperly so called. (See cut under Acrobates.) Some Sciuridæ have other vernacular names, as skug, assapan, taguan, jelerang, hackee, chickaree, gopher, sisel, suslik, prairie-dog, wishtonwish, etc.; but squirrel, without a qualifying term, is practically confined to the genus Sciurus, all the many members of which resemble one another too closely to be mistaken. See the technical names, and cut under Xerus.
2. n. In cotton manufacturing, one of the small card-covered rollers used with the large roller of a carding-machine. Also called urchin.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae distinguished by their large bushy tail.
2. n. Scientology A person, usually a freezoner, who applies L. Ron Hubbard's technology in a heterodox manner.
3. v. transitive To store in a secretive manner, to hide something for future use

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small rodents belonging to the genus Sciurus and several allied genera of the family Sciuridæ. Squirrels generally have a bushy tail, large erect ears, and strong hind legs. They are commonly arboreal in their habits, but many species live in burrows.
2. n. One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a kind of arboreal rodent having a long bushy tail
2. n. the fur of a squirrel