weasel out
Britishverb
-
to go back on a commitment
-
to evade a responsibility, esp in a despicable manner
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.
“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
Pick something that you feel like you can't weasel out of, and then you just have to do it.
From Salon • Mar. 12, 2023
Musk’s attempt to weasel out of his $44 billion deal has done predictably bad things to Twitter’s stock price, and the will-he-or-won’t-he of it all has tanked morale inside this giant, publicly traded firm.
From Slate • Aug. 17, 2022
“He’s trying to weasel out of any responsibility for running the agency,” says Robert Santos, president of the American Statistical Association.
From Science Magazine • Jan. 19, 2021
I had planned everything I would say so that he couldn’t weasel out of it.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
