stoat

[ stoht ]

/ stoʊt /

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noun

the ermine, Mustela erminea, especially when in brown summer pelage.

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Origin of stoat

1425–75; late Middle English stote< ?

Words nearby stoat

St.-Mihiel, St. Moritz, stmt, St. Nazaire, stoa, stoat, stoating, stob, stoccado, stochastic, stochastic matrix

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use stoat in a sentence

It may be a visual pun on her surname, since the Greek for ermine or stoat is galay.
London’s National Gallery Opens the Exhibition of the Century|Daily Beast Promotions|November 7, 2011|DAILY BEAST
Now the fox had his own ideas, and he wanted to get rid of the stoat.
Wood Magic|Richard Jefferies
"No intrusion can be thought of for a moment," said the stoat.
Wood Magic|Richard Jefferies
On this occasion the enemy turned out to be a stoat, and Cuni fled quaking lest it should be on her trail.
Lives of the Fur Folk|M. D. Haviland

Presently she came upon a luckless rabbit which had been killed by a stoat an hour before.
Lives of the Fur Folk|M. D. Haviland
He was never seen again, and neither was his sister who fed far out in the field one evening and was marked down by a stoat.
Lives of the Fur Folk|M. D. Haviland

British Dictionary definitions for stoat

stoat

/ (stəʊt) /

noun

a small Eurasian musteline mammal, Mustela erminea, closely related to the weasels, having a brown coat and a black-tipped tail: in the northern parts of its range it has a white winter coat and is then known as an ermine

Word Origin for stoat

C15: of unknown origin

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