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
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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
-
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
-
has been weasellingperfect progressive
Past
-
weaseledsimple
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weaselledsimple
-
had weaseledperfect
-
had weaselledperfect
-
was weaselingprogressive
-
was weasellingprogressive
-
were weaselingprogressive
-
were weasellingprogressive
-
had been weaselingperfect progressive
-
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
Amazing Animals, List 1
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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:
“But when universities do the same thing by trying to weasel out of their contracts, it’s equally corrosive.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 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
Rasmussen’s promotion of its vaccine-related balderdash is replete with weasel words, as if the firm is opting for plausible deniability.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2024
"The field is replete with weasel words and unfortunately one of those is consciousness," says Prof Stevan Harnad of Quebec University.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2024
He said she looked like a weasel, which wasn't true, but they couldn't keep on calling her the crying girl after she finally stopped crying.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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
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
Sela knew exactly how many rats, weasels, stoats and ferrets were able-bodied enough for combat.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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
"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
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
In fact, Wright didn’t explain things so much as conduct a master class in weaseling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
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
The sketchy dude turns out to be a shady fixer trying to save his own life by weaseling his way into unwitting police protection.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 17, 2021
Under their cover I stood a fair chance at weaseling off.
From Winning a Cause World War Stories by Inez Bigwood
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.
