Weasel

How to spell weasel

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce weasel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does weasel mean?

1. nounA small, slender carnivorous mammal with a long body and short legs, known for hunting rodents.
2. verbTo behave evasively or to wriggle out of a commitment or responsibility.

Weasel in a sentence

• noun

  A weasel slipped through the hedge and vanished into the field.

• verb

  He tried to weasel out of paying his share of the bill.

• noun

  The farmer set a trap after a weasel raided the henhouse.

• verb

  The contractor will weasel his way around the warranty if you let him.

Where does weasel come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from the native English stock, descending from the Old English wesle or weosule, the name for the small, slender carnivore familiar across northern Europe. It shares ancestry with the Old High German wisula and the Dutch wezel, all going back to a common West Germanic root for the animal; some scholars link that root to a sense of foul smell, since the creature is noted for its strong scent glands. The animal was long thought to be sly and quick, and by the late nineteenth century, mostly in American usage, 'weasel' had spread into a verb meaning to evade a commitment or wriggle out of a duty, as a weasel slips through a tight gap. The phrase 'weasel words' for deliberately evasive language dates from the same era. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: the ending sounds like 'zul' but is written 'sel', and the long opening vowel is spelled with the deceptive 'ea' rather than 'ee'.

How the word is built

• weasel (single root; from Old English wesle, a slender carnivorous mammal)