weasel

English

A weasel (sense 1).

Alternative forms

• weazel (archaic)
• weazle (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English wesele, from Old English weosule, from Proto-West Germanic *wisulā, from Proto-Germanic *wisulǭ. The verb is from c. 1900, from the supposed cunningness of the weasel.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwiːz(ə)l/
• (General American) enPR: wēʹzəl, wēzʹl, IPA^(key): /ˈwizəl/, /ˈwizl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːzəl
• Hyphenation: wea‧sel

Noun

weasel (plural weasels)

1. A least weasel (Mustela nivalis).
2. Any of the carnivorous mammals of the genus Mustela, having a slender body, a long tail and usually a light brown upper coat and light-coloured belly.
3. Any of certain other species of the family Mustelidae.
4. A devious or sneaky person or animal.
   • 2016 February 8, Marwan Bishara, “Why Obama fails the leadership test in the Middle East”, in Al Jazeera English‎^[1]:

     Once you've gone beyond the scripted speeches, soundbites and cliches, you'll notice how the debate about leadership is primarily divided between the three governors and two senators, the other two weasels, Donald Trump and Ben Carson notwithstanding.

5. A type of yarn winder used for counting the yardage of handspun yarn. It most commonly has a wooden peg or dowel that pops up from the gearing mechanism after a certain number of yards have been wound onto the winder.

Synonyms

• (any of the carnivorous mammals of the genus Mustela): mustela

Derived terms

Mustelidae

• African striped weasel (Poecilogale albinucha)
• Altai weasel (Mustela altaica)
• Amazon weasel (Neogale africana)
• back-striped weasel (Mustela strigidorsa)
• Bonaparte's weasel (Mustela erminea cicognanii, Mustela cicognanii)
• bridled weasel (Mustela frenata)
• Colombian weasel (Neogale felipei)
• common weasel (Mustela nivalis)
• dwarf weasel (Mustela nivalis)
• Egyptian weasel (Mustela nivalis subpalmata)
• honey weasel (Mellivora capensis)
• Japanese weasel (Mustela sibirica sibirica, Mustela itatsai)
• least weasel (Mustela nivalis)
• little weasel (Mustela nivalis)
• long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata)
• Malacca weasel (Viverricula malaccensis)
• Malay weasel, Malayan weasel (Mustela nudipes)
• mountain weasel (Mustela altaica)
• New York weasel (Mustela frenata noveboracensis)
• pale weasel (Mustela altaica)
• Patagonian weasel (Lyncodon patagonicus)
• pygmy weasel (Mustela nivalis)
• short-tailed weasel (Mustela erminea, Mustela richardsonii)
• Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica)
• snake weasel (Poecilogale albinucha)
• stripe-backed weasel (Mustela strigidorsa)
• tiger weasel (Vormela spp.)
• Tonkin weasel (Mustela tonkinensis)
• vison weasel (Neogale vison)
• white weasel (Mustela erminea)
• yellow weasel (Mustela sibirica)
• yellow-bellied weasel (Mustela kathiah)

 

other

• chalk-eating weasel
• honey weasel
• weasel clause
• weasel war dance
• weasel-faced
• weasel-like
• IceWeasel
• weasel cat (Pronodon spp.; Poiana richardsoni)
• weasel coot, weasel duck
• weasel-headed armadillo (Euphractus spp.)
• weasel lemur (Lepilemur mustelinus)
• weaselly, weasely
• weasel spider (Solpugidae spp.)
• weasel word
• wild weasel

 

Translations

least weasel, Mustela nivalis

• Albanian: nuselalë (sq) f, bukël (sq) f, bishtafurkë (sq) f, furrëbubëz (sq) f, larakuqe (sq) f, nusebukur (sq) f, nusëz (sq) f, nusmirë f, nusël (sq) f
• Algonquin: cigosi
• Arabic: اِبْن عِرْس m (ibn ʕirs), عِرْسَة f (ʕirsa)

  Moroccan Arabic: فارة الخيل f (farat el-khil) (lit. horse-mouse)

• Armenian: աքիս (hy) (akʻis)
• Asturian: mustadiella (ast), colleralba (ast), denunciella (ast), rataliga (ast)
• Bashkir: йәтсә (yətsə)
• Basque: erbinude (eu)
• Belarusian: ла́ска f (láska)
• Breton: kaerell (br)
• Bulgarian: невесту́лка (bg) f (nevestúlka)
• Catalan: mostela (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 伶鼬 (zh) (língyòu), 銀鼠／银鼠 (zh)

• Cimbrian: bròiballe n
• Czech: lasice f
• Danish: væsel c, brud (da) c
• Dutch: wezel (nl) f or m
• Esperanto: (♂) vizelo (eo), (♀) vizelino
• Estonian: nirk (et)
• Finnish: lumikko (fi)
• French: belette (fr) f, belette d’Europe (fr) f, belette pygmée (fr) f, petite belette (fr) f, fouine (fr) f
• Galician: denociña f, doniña f, donicela (gl) f
• Georgian: თრითინა (tritina), სინდიოფალა (sindiopala), დედოფალა (ka) (dedopala), დედოფალა (ka) (dedopala)
• German: Wiesel (de) n, Mauswiesel (de) n, Zwergwiesel n, Kleinwiesel n, (popularly) Hermännchen n
• Greek: νυφίτσα (el) f (nyfítsa)

  Ancient: γαλέη f (galéē), γαλῆ f (galê)

• Hebrew: חָמוֹס m (ḥamós)
• Hindi: रासू m (rāsū)
• Hungarian: menyét (hu)
• Irish: bláthnaid ghallda f
• Italian: donnola (it) f
• Japanese: イタチ (ja) (itachi), 鼬 (ja) (いたち, itachi), 鼬鼠 (ja) (いたち, itachi), 飯綱 (ja) (いいずな, īzuna)
• Korean: 족제비 (jokjebi)
• Latgalian: luoseica
• Latin: mūstēla (la) f
• Latvian: zebiekste f
• Lithuanian: žebenkštis m
• Low German: Wesel n
• Luxembourgish: Wisel n
• Macedonian: ла́сица f (lásica)
• Malay: wesel
• Maori: tori uaroa
• Mazanderani: لسک (lesk)
• Navajo: dlǫ́ʼii
• Occitan: mostèla (oc) f
• Old English: wesle
• Persian: راسو (fa) (râsu)
• Plautdietsch: Elkj f
• Polish: łasica (pl) f
• Portuguese: doninha (pt) f
• Romanian: nevăstuică (ro) f
• Russian: ла́ска (ru) f (láska)
• Scots: whitrat
• Scottish Gaelic: neas f, neas bheag f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ласица f

  Roman: lasica (sh) f

• Sicilian: baḍḍòttula f
• Slovene: podlasica (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: łasyca f, łasycka f

  Upper Sorbian: kohlica f

• Spanish: comadreja (es) f, mustela f, turón m
• Swedish: vessla (sv)
• Tagalog: mustela
• Thai: เพียงพอน (piiang-pɔɔn)
• Tibetan: ཟེ་མོ་སེར་པོ (ze mo ser po)
• Turkish: gelincik (tr)
• Ukrainian: ла́ска (uk) f (láska), ла́сиця f (lásycja)
• Volapük: (♂♀) visaf
• Walloon: marcote (wa) f, bascolete (wa) f
• Welsh: gwenci f, bronwen f
• West Frisian: wezeling c

any mammal of the genus Mustela

• Belarusian: ла́ска f (láska)
• Catalan: visó m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鼬鼠 (zh) (yòushǔ)

• Esperanto: (♂♀) mustelo, (♂) virmustelo, (♀) mustelino, mustelo
• Finnish: kärppä (fi)
• German: Wiesel (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: γαλέη f (galéē), γαλῆ f (galê)

• Hungarian: menyét (hu)
• Indonesian: cerpelai (id)
• Irish: easóg f
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: sermulis m, zebiekste
• Maori: wītara, wīhara, tori uaroa
• Navajo: dlǫ́ʼii
• Plautdietsch: Elkj f
• Portuguese: doninha (pt) f
• Quechua: achuqalla
• Russian: ла́ска (ru) f (láska)
• Scottish Gaelic: neas f
• Ukrainian: ла́ска (uk) f (láska), ла́сиця f (lásycja)
• Volapük: (♂♀) visaf
• West Frisian: marter c

any mammal of the family Mustelidae

• Catalan: mustèlid m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Esperanto: (♂♀) musteledo (eo), (♂) virmusteledo, (♀) musteledino, mustelo
• Finnish: näätäeläin (fi)
• German: Marder (de) m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: tori uaroa, tori
• Spanish: comadreja (es) f
• Walloon: bascolidî (wa) m

yarn winder

• Finnish: härveli (fi)
• Greek: ανέμη (el) f (anémi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} nuse e lalës
• Basque: ^{(please verify)} erbinude (eu), ^{(please verify)} satandre
• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} невесту́лка (bg) f (nevestúlka)
• Friulian: ^{(please verify)} bilite
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} hreysiköttur (is), ^{(please verify)} vesla
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} donnola (it) f
• Ladin: ^{(please verify)} belora
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} mustela (la)
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} žebenkštis
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} ballottra
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} snømus, ^{(please verify)} vesel
• Occitan: ^{(please verify)} mostèla (oc), ^{(please verify)} polida
• Romani: ^{(please verify)} boriori f
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} nevăstuică (ro) f
• Romansch: ^{(please verify)} mustaila f
• Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} bucca de mele, ^{(please verify)} bucchemeli
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} ласица, ^{(please verify)} lasica (sh)
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} lasica
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} podlasica (sl) f
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} comadreja (es) f, ^{(please verify)} mostela (es) f
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} vessla (sv)
• Vilamovian: ^{(please verify)} gyfaotela

Verb

weasel (third-person singular simple present weasels, present participle weaseling or weaselling, simple past and past participle weaseled or weaselled)

1. (transitive) To achieve by clever or devious means.
   • 2010 (publication date), Tony Dajer, "Vital Signs", Discover, ISSN 0274-7529, volume 32, number 1, January–February 2011, page 10:

     Prisoners are notorious for weaseling day passes to get out of lockup […] .

2. (transitive or reflexive) To gain something for oneself by clever or devious means.
   • 2006, Tony Ruggiero, Alien Deception‎^[2]:

     He's weaseled himself into a position where he can influence the outcome of this election.

   • 2010, Susie Davis, Uncovered: Revealing the Secrets of a Sexy Marriage‎^[3], page 147:

     Within just a couple of days, she [a dog] had weaseled her way into our hearts.

3. (intransitive) To engage in clever or devious behavior.
   • 1996, Stefan Bechtel, Larry Stains, Sex: A Man's Guide‎^[4], page 151:

     Authority figures have a history of weaseling on this topic.

Usage notes

• Weaseling and weaseled are more common in the US. Weaselling and weaselled are more common in the UK.

Related terms

• weasel one's way
• weasel out

Translations

to weasel out of doing something

• Bulgarian: клинча (bg) (klinča)
• Finnish: lusmuilla (fi), kiemurrella (fi)
• Hungarian: kihúzza magát valamiből
• Polish: wykręcić się (pl)
• Russian: уви́ливать (ru) impf (uvílivatʹ), увильну́ть (ru) pf (uvilʹnútʹ)

to weasel something out of somebody

• Finnish: huiputtaa (fi), kieroilla (fi)

See also

• ferret
• mink
• polecat
• stoat

References

• “weasel”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “weasel”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Further reading

• weasel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• weales