weasel

• 

  The weasel perches on Mademoiselle's shoulder
• WordNet 3.6
  • n weasel small carnivorous mammal with short legs and elongated body and neck
  • n weasel a person who is regarded as treacherous or sneaky
  • ***

• • n Weasel (Zoöl) Any one of various species of small carnivores belonging to the genus Putorius, as the ermine and ferret. They have a slender, elongated body, and are noted for the quickness of their movements and for their bloodthirsty habit in destroying poultry, rats, etc. The ermine and some other species are brown in summer, and turn white in winter; others are brown at all seasons.
  • ***

• • n weasel A small carnivorous digitigrade mammal of the restricted genus Putorius, of the family Mustelidæ, related to the stoat or ermine, ferret, and polecat of the same genus, and less intimately to the marten or sable of the genus Mustela of the same family. The species to which the name is most frequeutly or especially applied is P.vulgaris, the common weasel of Europe and of most of the cold and temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, distinguished by the comparative length and extreme slenderness of the body, and very small size, being only some 6 or 8 inches long, with a tail of 2 inches in length, or less; the color is reddish-brown above, and white below; the tail is of the same color as the body, and not tipped with black. In northerly regions it turns white in winter, like the ermine. It feeds on rats, mice, moles, shrews, small birds and their eggs, and insects; and, though itself classed as vermin by gamekeepers, it is often serviceable as a destroyer of vermin in ricks, barns, and granaries, its small size and lithe, sinuous body enabling it to penetrate almost everywhere. Its cunning and wariness are proverbial in the expression to catch a weasel asleep—that is, to do an extremely difficult thing by strategy, finesse, or unexpected action. Other species of Putorius, properly called weasels, inhabit most parts of the world, and the name has loosely attached to various animals of different families, some of which applications are noted in phrases below.
  • n weasel The weasel-coot.
  • n weasel A lean, mean, sneaking, greedy fellow.
  • ***

• • n Weasel wē′zl a common carnivore belonging to the same genus as the polecat and stoat—the body long and slender—eating rats, frogs, birds, mice, &c.:
  • n Weasel wē′zl (Shak.) a lean, hungry fellow
  • ***

• Matt Groening

  

  “Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.”

In literature:

In poetry:

In news: