Weasel definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (14)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

noun Any of various carnivorous mammals of the genus Mustela, having a long slender body, a long tail, short legs, and brownish fur that in many species turns white in winter.
noun A person regarded as sneaky or treacherous.
intransitive verb To be evasive; equivocate.

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Century Dictionary (7)

A small carnivorous digitigrade mammal of the restricted genus Putorius, of the family Mustelidæ, related to the stoat or ermine, ferret, and polecat of the same genus, and less intimately to the marten or sable of the genus Mustela of the same family. The species to which the name is most frequeutly or especially applied is P.vulgaris, the common weasel of Europe and of most of the cold and temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, distinguished by the comparative length and extreme slenderness of the body, and very small size, being only some 6 or 8 inches long, with a tail of 2 inches in length, or less; the color is reddish-brown above, and white below; the tail is of the same color as the body, and not tipped with black. In northerly regions it turns white in winter, like the ermine. It feeds on rats, mice, moles, shrews, small birds and their eggs, and insects; and, though itself classed as vermin by gamekeepers, it is often serviceable as a destroyer of vermin in ricks, barns, and granaries, its small size and lithe, sinuous body enabling it to penetrate almost everywhere. Its cunning and wariness are proverbial in the expression to catch a weasel asleep—that is, to do an extremely difficult thing by strategy, finesse, or unexpected action. Other species of Putorius, properly called weasels, inhabit most parts of the world, and the name has loosely attached to various animals of different families, some of which applications are noted in phrases below. Fair was this yonge wyf, and therwithal As any wezele hir body gent and smal. Chaucer, Miller's Tale, l. 48. A wesel tame have sum men ther thai crepe, Hem forto take. Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 109. I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs. Shak., As you Like it, ii. 5. 13.
The weasel-coot.
A lean, mean, sneaking, greedy fellow. The weasel Scot Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs. Shak., Hen. V., i. 2. 170.

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Examples (50)

She never came out and said in so many words that the weasel was the one who broke her finger for her, but it was there, it was there. — Asimov's Science Fiction, Jan. 2002
So they're just now figuring MadeoffWithTheMoney might be a nasty weasel, after all? — Politics in the Zeros
Right, just like this weasel was against FISA, The War. — CommonDreams.org Headlines
Pop goes the weasel, and click goes the metronome. — All Updates @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
"But we'll drive him out Then Uncle Wiggily felt very badly, indeed, for he knew that a weasel is the worst animal a rabbit can have after him. — Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard Adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman with the Mother Goose Characters

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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)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English wesele, from Old English wesle.

Century Dictionary (1)

Formerly also weazel, weesel; from Middle English wesel, wesele, wesile, wezele, from Anglo-Saxon wesle = Dutch wesel, wezel (diminutive weselke, wezeltje) = Old High German wisala, Middle High German wisel, wiscle. G. wiesel = Icelandic vīsla (in comp. hreysi-vīsla) = Swedish vesla, vässla = Danish væsel, a weasel; origin uncertain.

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