Weaselly
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Resembling a weasel (in appearance).
"The writer had just entered into his eighteenth year, when he met at the table of a certain Anglo-Germanist an individual, apparently somewhat under thirty, of middle stature, a thin and weaselly figure, a sallow complexion, a certain obliquity of vision, and a large pair of spectacles."
- 2 Devious; cunning; misleading; sneaky.
"1864, W. S. Gilbert, “Sixty-Three and Sixty-Four” originally published in Fun, V (2 January 1864), p. 162, later published in Bab Ballads, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970, p. 37, With intellect weaselly, artist has easily earned all his bacon and greens by it, And now that it’s done and all ready for Fun, it’s my duty to say what he means by it."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The writer had just entered into his eighteenth year, when he met at the table of a certain Anglo-Germanist an individual, apparently somewhat under thirty, of middle stature, a thin and weaselly figure, a sallow complexion, a certain obliquity of vision, and a large pair of spectacles."
Etymology
From weasel + -y.
More for "weaselly"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.