weasel n.
1. (also weasle) a general derog. term; also as adj. [reverse anthropomorphism; Williams has 17C use of weasel, a lecher].
Parson’s Wedding (1664) V iv: Who would choose such weazels as we see daily marry’d? that are all head and Tail, crooked, dirty, Sold Vermin, predestin’d for Cuckolds, painted Snails, with houses on their backs, and horns as big as Dutch cows; would any woman marry such? | ||
Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 156: That polecat, Fiddylee, I saw to-day [...] the weasel couldn’t look me in the face. | ||
Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 336: Blusterer, Saucebox, Smell-feast, Weasel, / Swasher, Swaggerer, Princock, Chuff. | ||
Girl Proposition 4: [He] saw her come out with the Human Weasel. | ||
Bath Chron. 9 May 10/6: Mrs Braund [...] called Nellie Painter [...] a weasel; Nellie replied, ‘You need not be “ikey”; you’re only a barmaid’. | ||
DN IV:iii 197: weasel, a mean, greedy or sneaking fellow. | ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in||
Marvel 17 July 7: I dunno, my poor little weasel-snouted idiot. | ||
Young Man of Manhattan 111: Why, the weasel’s plastered! | ||
(con. 1918) German Prisoner 25: There was something terrible stirring in this weasel’s blood. | ||
letter 30 Mar. in Charters I (1995) 55: I hope Pop comes home [...] so that you’ll have the old weasel around to argue with. | ||
Joint (1972) 115: Two-man cells being at a premium, it took a little maneuvering to keep out the hardnoses and weasels who figured to move in. | letter 31 Mar. in||
Current Sl. IV:2 10: Weasel, n. An unattractive male. | ||
Campus Sl. Apr. 4: weasle – a person who plays ends off against the middle [...] Lee only roots for whoever’s winning as usual. He’s being a weasle. | ||
Superman II [film script] A lying weasel like you couldn’t resist the chance. | ||
Double Bang 129: Little weasel greaseball. | ||
Rivethead (1992) 32: The man with the clipboard [...] just another weasel in a short-sleeve shirt, deputized to protect the status quo. | ||
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 201/2: weasel n. a sly or devious person, esp. a nark. | ||
Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘Bastard was good looking, especially compared to most of the other weasels on the scene’. | ||
Whiplash River [ebook] Ziegler was a doughy, pretentious weasel. | ||
(con. 1943) Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘[Y]ou fucken weasel’. | ||
Glorious Heresies 14: So how Maureen had managed to kill an intruder was beyond him. How did the weasel get in? | ||
(con. 1991-94) City of Margins 51: He took the cigarette case off some weasel in Bay Ridge. | ||
Shore Leave 46: ‘[T]he weasel had no worries dobbing me in’. |
2. in attrib. use of sense 1.
Hood Rat 108: A wiry kid [...] wading up the street with two lanky weasel mates on each shoulder. |
3. (US) a native of South Carolina [the state has a large population of the animal].
St Louis (MO) Reveille 14 May 2/4: The inhabitants of [...] South Carolina [are called] Weasels [DA]. | ||
Montana Post (Virginia City, MT) 28 Apr. 4/1: The inhabitants of [...] South Carolina [are called] Weasels. | ||
Semi-Wkly Louisianan 31 Aug. 1/3: The Nicknames of the States [...] Rhode Island, gun flints; South Carolina, weasels; Tennessee, whelps; Texas, beefheads; Vermont, green mountain boys; Wisconsin, badgers. | ||
Chambers’s Jrnl 13 Mar. 171/2: South Carolina is Palmetto State, and the natives are Weasels . | ||
North Amer. Rev. Nov. 433: Those from Maine were call’d Foxes; New Hampshire, Granite Boys; Massachusetts, Bay Staters [...] South Carolina, Weasels. | ‘Sl. in America’ in||
Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
4. (US) an informer.
AS II:6 281: Weasel — Unpaid guard, usually an inmate that tells on another. | ‘Prison Lingo’ in||
AS VI:6 442: weasel, n. An informer. | ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | ||
Teen-Age Mafia 117: The guy knew what to expect if he turned weasel. | ||
Q&A 113: ‘If it weren’t for Fernando, I would kill myself.’ [...] ‘No you won’t, you rat weasel. You’ll finagle your way out. You’ll rat Brennan out to the DA’. | ||
Close Pursuit (1988) 139: Field Associate! What a name! Spy, snitch, stoolie, fink, rat, weasel — they were closer to the mark. | ||
April Dead 64: Johnny Bone, all-round tout and weasel. |
5. (orig. US) the penis [it ‘burrows’].
in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 413: ‘A dollar gold for a piece of cock, / Pop! goes the weasel!’ [...] She learned it near Pineville, Missouri, before 1910. | ||
Ozark Folksongs and Folklore I 414: The chorus, Pop!, goes the weasel! has always been understood to refer to the ‘popping’ of the penis into the vagina [...] and only Eric Partridge, the world’s clumsiest amateur etymologist, can miss or overstate the point so fatuously, in his Shakespeare’s Bawdy (1948) p. 169, as to believe the Pop! is that of ejaculation. | ||
Rumble Tumble 94: I’m not playing the horizontal tango with some redneck’s weasel, you look me up. |
6. (US Und.) a private detective.
Und. and Prison Sl. |
7. (US) a pistol, a revolver.
Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/5: Pistol packin’ Mama [...] had never shipped a weasel, and didn’t know how she had come by her nickname. |
8. (N.Z.) a sly or devious person.
DAUL 235/1: Weasel. 1. A crafty person without scruples. | et al.||
Big Huey 255: Weasel (n) Sly or devious person. In the sense of an informer, British, since the early 1930s. | ||
NZEJ 13 37: weasel n. A sly or devious person. | ‘Boob Jargon’ in
In derivatives
a general derog. description.
(con. 1968) Citadel (1989) 120: I was just trying to see that weasel-assed tank driver didn’t accidentally hit reverse. |
(US) narrow-eyed, thus untrustworthy.
Flash (NY) 17 Oct. n.p.: He was weezle eyed and about his mouth lurked a low, treacherous, petty-larceny smile. |
a general derog. description; image is of untrustworthiness.
Breaking Out 281: I hardly think a pathetic weasily little bloody runt like you [...] could possess anything that would intimidate me. | ||
On the Yankee Station (1982) 114: Weasely shit-face Lydecker. | ‘On the Yankee Station’ in
In compounds
(US carnival) a bag in which one places saved-up money.
Madball (2019) 66: ‘I told ’em about weasel sacks and winter money and that they’d find plenty of dough stashed away’. |
In phrases
(US) to urinate.
Broken 264: Israel is outside draining the weasel against a casuarina hedge. | ‘Paradise’ in
(US teen) to have sexual intercourse.
Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 ‘greasing the weasel’ v. Sexual intercourse. If someone is ‘greasing the weasel’, it means that they are having sex. For example, ‘he’s not coming out coz he’s greasing the weasel with his misses.’ Dick equals weasel, greasing through sex. |