gray squirrel

[ grey skwur-uhl, skwuhr‐ ]

noun

1. a gray-colored arboreal squirrel: North American species include the eastern gray squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis ) of the eastern and midwestern U.S. and southeastern Canada, the western gray squirrel ( S. griseus ) of the coastal western U.S. and Mexico, the Arizona gray squirrel ( S. arizonensis ) of eastern Arizona and adjacent Mexico, and the Mexican gray squirrel ( S. aureogaster ), found from Guatemala north through eastern Mexico to the Florida Keys.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gray squirrel¹

An Americanism dating back to 1615–25

Example Sentences

Not to mention the many species on the verge of extinction, while gray squirrels are not even endangered, though Truffles’s life surely was.

From Washington Post

A young gray squirrel flirted across the wagon ruts ahead of him and darted up a chestnut sapling.

From Project Gutenberg

The distant bark of the more wary gray squirrel may be heard about the same time.

From Project Gutenberg

I looked more looks at that gray squirrel sitting out on a limb.

From Project Gutenberg

A gray squirrel frisking by stopped at the lunch-counter and seized an 'Educator' cracker.

From Project Gutenberg

Little Gray Squirrel, crying into his maple-leaf handkerchief as though his very heart would break!

From Project Gutenberg