I. ˈwēzəl noun
( plural weasels also weasel )
Etymology: Middle English wesele, from Old English weosule, wesle; akin to Old High German wisula weasel, Old Swedish visla, Latin virus slimy liquid, poison, stench, and probably to Sanskrit visra musty, smelling of raw meat — more at virus
1.
a. : any of various small slender-bodied carnivorous mammals (genus Mustela ) that are related to the minks and polecats, are very active, bold, and bloodthirsty, kill many small birds and mammals and especially great numbers of mice, rats, and other vermin, and have a mostly reddish brown coat with white or yellowish underparts which in the northern forms turns white in winter and a black-tipped tail — see bonaparte's weasel , ermine , least weasel , long-tailed weasel , yellow weasel
b. : any of various mammals felt to resemble the true weasels in appearance or habits — usually used in combination
c. : the fur or pelt of any of these animals
2. usually capitalized : a South Carolinian — used as a nickname
3. : a person like a weasel in furtiveness, elusiveness, cunning, treachery : sneak
4. : weasel word
5. : a light personnel and cargo carrier self-propelled on wide rubber-padded semiflexible tracks and built either as a land vehicle capable of traveling over snow or ice or sand or as an amphibious vehicle with baffle plates on the tracks capable also of traversing swamps and rivers
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II. intransitive verb
( weaseled ; weaseled ; weaseling -z(ə)liŋ ; weasels )
Etymology: weasel word
1. : to use weasel words : equivocate
uneasy and evasive liar who weaseled and retreated when his credibility was questioned — New Republic
2. : to escape from or evade a situation or obligation — often used with out
the way men will weasel out of their missteps — Jean Stafford