Showing results for flying squirrel. Search instead for asiatic flying squirrel.

flying squirrel

American

noun

any of various nocturnal tree squirrels, as Glaucomys volans, of the eastern U.S., having folds of skin connecting the fore and hind legs, permitting long, gliding leaps.

flying squirrel British

noun

any nocturnal sciurine rodent of the subfamily Petauristinae , of Asia and North America. Furry folds of skin between the forelegs and hind legs enable these animals to move by gliding leaps

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of flying squirrel

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

flying squirrel

"Jian and the other microraptors probably weren't capable of true, powered flight, but they could probably glide like a flying squirrel," says O'Connor.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026

Of course M3GAN will zip into a flying squirrel suit and go soaring over the trees.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2025

For example, it has been reported that EU legislation to protect the rare Siberian flying squirrel has also slowed down major infrastructure projects in places like Finland.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2024

After all, he says, the life of the woolly flying squirrel is “one of the strangest ways to be a mammal.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023

He sailed out over the bottoms like a flying squirrel and lit in the top of a good-size bush.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023