Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Slang Eccentric.
- adj. Slang Cunningly unforthcoming or reticent.
Wiktionary
- adj. resembling a squirrel
- adj. unpredictable or jumpy
- adj. eccentric
Etymologies
- squirrel + -ly, 1925. Presumably from erratic movement of squirrels, or by analogy with nuts ("insane"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“He was great fun and kind of squirrelly in a good way.”
The Washington Post: The town that Leo M. Bernstein built may lose its historical charm
“The buck shad are "squirrelly," and they'll venture into shallower water.”
“Update: Ricky has some rather "squirrelly" comments about Buddy.”
“I think people look at the tape recorder and get kind of squirrelly, you know?”
“But he couldn't resist, and was getting "squirrelly" not having a show to write.”
“Which leads to Howard's decisive conclusion, "The drums are always pretty pummeling and jungley, the vocals are kind of squirrelly and fluttery, and the guitars are idiosyncratic and bounce off of each other.”
“Everyone had been acting squirrelly—trying to make us believe Frank was out of his mind rather than telling the crazy truth.”
“I'll take the freezing temp over a squirrelly preschooler any day.”
“Direct inspirations include T.E. Lawrence, another ambitious soldier who was brilliant, squirrelly, and short, and a physical template from a hospital pharmacist I used to work with back in my 20s, from whom I stole the height, physique, chin tic and leg braces.”
An Interview With Author Lois McMaster Bujold « A Working Title
“They had an escort boat riding shotgun - and they were told not to engage by some squirrelly defense minister.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘squirrelly’.
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Mots Fous
Describing the demented--as colorfully as possible.
bats in the belfry, out to lunch, daft, stark ravin' mad, unsound, barmy, nuts but nuts, barking, touched, cracked, doolally, potty and 22 more...
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Animal Characteristics
Any words that have relation to animal characteristics.
lupine, elephantine, swinish, reptilian, mousy, lion-hearted, fishy, hawkish, foxy, leonine, squirrelly, verminous and 3 more...
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Words I will probably never use
décolleté, pendragon, amerce, viviparous, dragoon, brigand, outlaw, outlawry, lugubrious, boor, contretemps, decrepit and 151 more...
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elizacole's Words
isomorphic, endemic, tmesis, fillip, antedate, avoirdupois, jeremiad, hypnagogic, antediluvian, fuck, reification, raconteur and 251 more...
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Squ-
All those fun words that begin with squ-. Be careful; this list is hard to read without some serious eye-crossage.
squid, squab, square, squeegee, squirt, squire, squib, squelch, squabble, squad, squally, squalled and 228 more...
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Bushel
Heir to Beachcomb, words that I like.
http://wordie.org/lists/beachcombbushel, peck, kismet, hyperborean, votive, parsnip, murmuration, fleuron, gossamer, clementine, opal, dollop and 15 more...
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myroblyte's Words
myroblyte, cephalophore, reliquary, pyx, ganache, lord, quill, gallant, quixotic, finial, macaronic, hang fire and 73 more...
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Animal Magnetism
Adjectives derived from animal names but used to describe people
dogged, foxy, bearish, bullish, pigheaded, birdbrained, catty, wolfish, bullheaded, horsy, weaselly, squirrelly and 39 more...
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Double Your Fun
Words with at least two sets of double letters.
starbuccaneer, hootenanny, squirrelly, whippersnapper, appassionato, mississippi, balloon, flibbertigibbet, success, misspelled, suffragette, trapper keeper and 13 more...
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epersonae's list
random stuff, or: I'm not quite sure yet what this is for.
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DigiTim's Words
niblings, obfuscation, brilliance, sagacious, salacious, squirrelly
Tweets
Looking for tweets for squirrelly.
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