weasel
Americannoun
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weasels,
plural
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weasel
plural
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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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weasels,
present (3rd person singular)
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weaseled,
past participle, past
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weaselled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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weaseling,
present participle
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weaselling
present participle (especially British)
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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
-
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
-
is weaselingprogressive
-
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
-
weaseledsimple
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weaselledsimple
-
had weaseledperfect
-
had weaselledperfect
-
was weaselingprogressive
-
was weasellingprogressive
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were weaselingprogressive
-
were weasellingprogressive
-
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:
The reintroductions represented the first attempt to re-establish a sustainable breeding population of the tree-climbing members of the weasel family in the South West since they were hunted to extinction more than a century ago.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
No being a weasel and giving me three or four.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
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
Lacking Spotify, they decided to pass the time by undertaking “an enumeration and actual count” of road-killed animals—a battered weasel here, a flattened garter snake there.
From Slate ● May 25, 2024
Then he pointed in the direction of the group he had just left, at a little man who looked like a fattened-up weasel.
From "The Stranger" by Albert Camus
"I've seen stoats, I've seen weasels, I've even seen pine martens," said Kate Wollen, from Forestry England.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
His screen persona has often been the sleaziest of weasels, the connoisseur’s moral degenerate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
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
They’d obtained over a hundred new recruits, mainly rats but with a good scattering of ferrets and weasels, and the odd stoat.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
It weaseled under the doors and through the seams of your shirt.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2019
The crest-tailed mulgara weaseled its way back into the park before the start of this conservation project.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 18, 2017
"It's weaseled its way into my psychology, I'm not gonna lie. It would take a lot right now to talk me into playing a killer."
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2015
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 ● Dec. 20, 2013
Grandma hugged Zed and then Zed hugged Joey, and bam, faster than one of Joey’s knockouts, Zed had weaseled himself into becoming part of Joey’s family.
From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen
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 Inez Bigwood
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
