Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British The ermine, especially when in its brown color phase.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The ermine, Putorius erminea, and other members of that genus when not specified by distinctive names. See ermine, weasel, mink, fitchew, polecat, ferrer. Stoat more particularly designates the animal in ordinary summer pelage, when it is dull mahogany-brown above, and pale sulphur-yellow below, with the tail black-tipped as in winter.
Wiktionary
- n. Mustela erminea, the ermine or short-tailed weasel, a mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) The ermine in its summer pelage, when it is reddish brown, but with a black tip to the tail. The name is sometimes applied also to other brown weasels.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the ermine in its brown summer coat with black-tipped tail
Etymologies
- Middle English stote. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“She was brought up in the country, rides well (side-saddle), plays a goodish game of tennis, but does not know a stoat from a weasel or notice the direction of the wind.”
“The ermine, or stoat, is a bloodthirsty little villain.”
“* An animal called the stoat, a kind of ermine, is said to be found in North America, but very inferior to the European and Asiatic.”
Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains
“The little English stoat, which is destroyed by the gamekeepers, becomes the beautiful snow-white ermine in Russia and other cold countries. ”
“Both she and the stoat, with its white winter coat, are looking in the same direction, at something to the viewer's right.”
“The stacked wood, being undisturbed for the summer months, is a haunt of mice, and the stoat undulates over it, coming down headfirst like a nuthatch.”
“The clatter of a pheasant call from the field beyond sends the stoat into hiding.”
“A couple of weeks ago I watched an adult stoat carry a vole in its jaws back to the gap in the wall beneath the sycamore tree where I reckon its nest to be.”
“The stoat scampers along the dry-stone wall, lightly cresting the lichen-covered coping stones.”
“Along the waterside, silt from recent floods told its own morning story in tracks of badger, otter and stoat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stoat’.
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Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
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animals (1 syllable)
A list of common animal names. Keep the list to 1 syllable words.No scientific names. No proper names like 'Fluffy' the elephant.Insects and other creatures (even ficticious) are welcome!You can ...
dog, cat, bear, bee, ass, ape, horse, squid, bug, hare, hawk, pig and 138 more...
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Furriery
Anything to do with the fur trade.
furriery, badger, trap, trapper, beaver, polecat, fitch, fitchew, mink, chinchilla, rabbit, fur and 47 more...
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Jerks & Assholes
Misandry; the male counterpart to Sluts & Bitches.
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yoshiyahu's Words
meme, disingenuous, antebellum, hypnagogic, philtrum, transference, prototypical, janissary, tuareg, shoal, caltrop, bannister and 89 more...
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Lillyjames's Words
uncategorized words that I enjoy
replete, unabashed, dauntless, ubiquitous, fanged, blush, flush, murmur, mercurial, dishevelled, decrepit, raven and 146 more...
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Watership Down
Every time there's a group discussion, I'll remember that it's just a bunch of bunnies sitting around and I'll laugh.
copse, lapine, creosote, stoat, kestrel, lollop, bluebottle, warren, myxomatosis
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The O.U.P. Junior Dictionary Death Row
Another news story about words being removed from a dictionary before their time. See also the list of words added to the dictionary.
carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop and 137 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
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The Golem's Eye
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's book, The Golem's Eye.
ordure, widdershins, cop, stipple, ostler, struts, minaret, chemise, remonstrate, concussion, wicket, vamoose and 249 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2024 more...
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Words next
patrimony, cacophony, fearsome, coruscating, coruscating, coruscating, dolomite, dolorous, transdermal, chatty cathy, chatterbox, incessantly and 249 more...
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Animals With Nifty Names
hamster, gerbil, ferret, horse, skink, newt, shark, octopus, weasel, panda, giraffe, hyena and 129 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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wolfson's Words
cicisbeo, animadversion, drupe, callipygian, rhadamanthine, poetaster, philosophaster, grammaticaster, lacuna, infralapsarian, incunabula, logorrhea and 142 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for stoat.
ofravens Plath citations: see note at lapwing. Apr 14, 2008
chained_bear The European ermine, Putorius ermineus or Mustela erminea, esp. when in its brown summer coat.
Also, figurative, esp. a treacherous fellow; a sexually aggressive man, a lecher. Feb 4, 2007