stoat
Americannoun
-
stoats
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stoat
1425–75; late Middle English stote < ?
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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.
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This makes it yet another introduced species like the rat or stoat, with unpredictable behavior.
From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2025
On one predator-free island—home to threatened species such as a flightless parrot called the kakapo—the government spent some $295,000 over eight months tracking down a single stoat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2024
This allowed the stoat population to rebound to pre-eradication levels undoing the previous progress.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2023
Decked out at one point in a velvet blazer and turtleneck, hair teased into the likeness of a dead stoat, Robey is less demented sadist than disco king.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2023
The knob of the handle was made of the skull of a stoat, oiled and polished like ivory, and Kay loved it.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
They imported possums for fur, rabbits to hunt for sport, then ravenous stoats to control the rabbit population.
From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2025
The carnivorous mammals are classed as an invasive species in the islands, and a culling programme for stoats began in 2019.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2025
“With rats and stoats, they are a lot harder.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2024
Starting in the 1800s, millions were slaughtered by nonnative predators like stoats, a mammal related to the weasel.
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
Ferrets, weasels and stoats, their faces smeared with moist dark earth, popped out of the ground in the oddest of places.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
