weasel
Americannoun
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any small carnivore of the genus Mustela, of the family Mustelidae, having a long, slender body and feeding chiefly on small rodents.
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any of various similar animals of the family Mustelidae.
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a cunning, sneaky person.
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a tracked vehicle resembling a tractor, used in snow.
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Slang. an informer; stool pigeon.
verb (used without object)
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to evade an obligation, duty, or the like; renege (often followed byout ).
That's one invitation I'd like to weasel out of.
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to use weasel words; be ambiguous; mislead.
Upon cross-examination the witness began to weasel.
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Slang. to inform.
noun
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any of various small predatory musteline mammals of the genus Mustela and related genera, esp M. nivalis ( European weasel ), having reddish-brown fur, an elongated body and neck, and short legs
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informal a sly or treacherous person
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a motor vehicle for use in snow, esp one with caterpillar tracks
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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weaselsimple
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weaselssimple
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have weaseledperfect
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have weaselledperfect
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has weaseledperfect
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has weaselledperfect
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am weaselingprogressive
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am weasellingprogressive
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are weaselingprogressive
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are weasellingprogressive
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is weaselingprogressive
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is weasellingprogressive
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have been weaselingperfect progressive
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have been weasellingperfect progressive
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has been weaselingperfect progressive
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has been weasellingperfect progressive
Past
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weaseledsimple
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weaselledsimple
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had weaseledperfect
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had weaselledperfect
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was weaselingprogressive
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was weasellingprogressive
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were weaselingprogressive
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were weasellingprogressive
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had been weaselingperfect progressive
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had been weasellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of weasel
before 900; 1920–25 weasel for def. 6; Middle English wesele, Old English wesle, weosule; cognate with Old High German wisula, German Wiesel
Explanation
A weasel is a sneaky and sly person. Your weasel of a friend has a habit of "forgetting" his wallet every time he goes out to dinner with you. You can call someone who cheats and lies a weasel, or you can use the word literally, to refer to the small furry mammal called a weasel. The furry kind of weasel is known for its short legs, long neck, and musky smell. In fact, the word's Proto-Germanic origin wisand carries the meaning of a stinky animal. The verb weasel means to sneak or evade, like when you weasel out of doing the dishes.
Vocabulary lists containing weasel
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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.
See Examples For:
No being a weasel and giving me three or four.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
"He's a weasel of a man because every time he's confronted, he becomes sick or says one of his family members has died," says Marns, who now lives in Dubai.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
Rather than make direct claims about cures, supplement promoters resort to vague boasts about their products using what the Canadian researchers identify as weasel words that can foster the impression of efficacy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2025
Although Kennedy repeatedly claimed that he's not anti-vaccine throughout his hearing, his statements about vaccines are loaded with weasel words and caveats that are common deflection strategies from vaccine denialists.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2025
Gale the weasel squeaked in alarm, but Hazel imagined a new tunnel leading off to the left—a tunnel even more dangerous, going the wrong direction.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
In the Gaza Strip, left devastated by war, the daily battles are now with rats, urban weasels and other pests spreading diseases.
From BBC ● May 2, 2026
That means eradicating invasive species such as possums, rats and mustelids—a group that includes weasels, ferrets and stoats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2024
Squid-headed figures in lab coats inject fish with pink dye and cradle docile geese in front of giant mushroom-capped trees while solemn weasels look on.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2024
Animal rehabilitation networks will offer white-tailed deer, shrews, weasels, and squirrels.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 29, 2024
“If you had some weasels, for instance. Weasels are deadly to basilisks.”
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
Instead, he has weaseled around, and presumably didn’t tell his mother not to make her despicable request to you—he surely knew what she was up to and didn’t even have the courage to warn you.
From Slate ● Jul. 5, 2021
It weaseled under the doors and through the seams of your shirt.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2019
It’s not the only comedy with pithy, repeatable dialogue that weaseled its way into our vernacular so completely that we started to forget about the source.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 28, 2018
The crest-tailed mulgara weaseled its way back into the park before the start of this conservation project.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 18, 2017
Fang weaseled his way to the front, dragging me with him.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
This weaseling is probably the same reason that the court teed up Section 2’s constitutionality in an obscure order issued late on a Friday afternoon in August last year.
From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026
By the time it came out in 2017, the AI research emerging from the company’s labs was so promising that Kohs was invited to keep weaseling around.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 17, 2026
It’s tech bros, like the ones weaseling into Hollywood, who give their every innovation a sterile sheen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
Which retired executive is weaseling out of his tax liabilities?
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2018
Under their cover I stood a fair chance at weaseling off.
From Winning a Cause World War Stories by Bigwood, Inez
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.
