Squirrelly

//ˈskwɝli// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling a squirrel.; Eccentric. figuratively

    "Mom can act a bit squirrelly sometimes, and I swear it's usually worse after sunset."

  2. 2
    Resembling a squirrel.; Unpredictable or jumpy. figuratively

    ""This aircraft seems to be acting a bit squirrelly," the pilot complained uneasily to his copilot."

  3. 3
    Resembling a squirrel.; Literally so.

    "Some of these lemurs seem almost squirrelly."

Synonyms

All synonyms
5150aberrantabnormalanomalousapeshitbaked

Example

More examples

"Instead of a piggy bank, Tom has a "squirrelly bank"."

Etymology

From squirrel + -ly, 1925. Presumably from the erratic movement of squirrels, or by analogy with nuts (“insane”).

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