Squirrel

//ˈskwɝ(ə)l// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.

    "tree squirrels"

  2. 2
    a kind of arboreal rodent having a long bushy tail wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.; Any of those distinguished typically by a large bushy tail; any of the tree squirrels of subfamily Sciurinae or phenotypically similar sciurids. especially
  4. 4
    the fur of a squirrel wordnet
  5. 5
    Someone who displays squirrel-like qualities such as stealing or hoarding objects.
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder.
  2. 7
    A person, usually a freezoner, who applies L. Ron Hubbard's technology in a heterodox manner. derogatory, often
Verb
  1. 1
    To store in a secretive manner, to hide something for future use transitive
  2. 2
    To become distracted intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
accumulateamassanimalantelopearmadillobat

Example

More examples

"The squirrel was busy gathering nuts."

Etymology

From Middle English squirel, squyrelle, from Anglo-Norman esquirel and Old French escurel (whence French écureuil), from Vulgar Latin *scūriolus, diminutive of *scūrius, variant of Latin sciūrus, from Ancient Greek σκίουρος (skíouros, “shadow-tail”, from σκιά (skiá, “shadow”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”)). Displaced native Middle English acquerne, aquerne, from Old English ācweorna.

Related phrases

Abert squirrelAbert's squirrelAfrican giant squirrelAfrican pygmy squirrelDouglas squirrelFinlayson's squirrelFremont's squirrelHimalayan striped squirrelJapanese squirrelKaibab squirrelOriental giant squirrelPrevost's squirrel

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.