weasel

SayWEE-zuhl/ˈwizəl/UK/ˈwiːz(ə)l/

8 meanings of weasel

1
nouncountable
A small, slim animal with short legs and brown fur that hunts mice and other small prey.
Like a long, furry tube on short legs that can slip into narrow holes.
A weasel hunts mice, rats, and other small animals.
Weasels have long bodies and very short legs.
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2
nounderogatorycolloquialcountable
A sneaky person who tricks others or escapes blame.
Like someone who always slides out of trouble and leaves others to take the blame.
Don't trust him. He's a real weasel who blames everyone else.
Those weasels lied to get out of trouble.
Similarsnake, sneak, rat
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3
verbintransitive
To act in a sneaky or tricky way, often to avoid something.
Like wriggling free of a net instead of facing it head-on.
He always tries to weasel out of doing the dishes.
She weaseled around the question instead of answering it.
Similarequivocate, hedge, dodge, wriggle
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4
verbtransitive
To get something done by using sneaky tricks.
He weaseled a better seat by complaining loudly.
They weasel discounts out of every shopkeeper they meet.
Similarwangle, finagle, wheedle
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5
verbreflexivetransitive
To get something for yourself by using sneaky tricks.
He weaseled an extra day off for himself with a fake excuse.
They always weasel the best deals for themselves.
Similarwangle, finagle
Note
6
nouncountable
The smallest kind in the weasel family, with a short tail and a brown coat.
About the size of a small mouse with legs: tiny enough to follow prey underground.
A weasel can chase a mouse right down into its hole, it is so small.
The tiny weasel weighed less than a chocolate bar.
7
nouncountable
Any of several other small animals in the same family, such as stoats and polecats.
A weasel had been raiding the nests, though it might really have been a polecat.
Several kinds of weasel live in these woods, from stoats to martens.
8
nouncountable
A tool for winding handspun yarn that also counts how many yards you wind.
Like a tape measure for yarn that clicks to tell you the length.
She wound the yarn onto the weasel until the peg popped up.
A weasel tells you how many yards of yarn you have spun.

Practice

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Origin

It comes from Old English weosule, an old Germanic word for the animal. The verb began around 1900, from the idea that weasels are sneaky.