This week’s theme
Words coined after animals

This week’s words
reptilian
eager beaver
testudinal
weasel
big fish

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(WEE-zuhl)

MEANING:

noun:	1. Any of various small slender carnivorous mammals of the genus Mustela.
	2. A sneaky, cunning person.
verb intr.:	1. To evade an obligation.
	2. To be evasive by using ambiguous or misleading words.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English wesule. Earliest documented use: c. 450 CE.

USAGE:

“The CEO of the Washington Post Company, Don Graham, and Mark Zuckerberg shook hands over the deal, making a verbal contract, but when Zuckerberg weaseled out of it to take a better offer, Graham, out of kindness to a young fella just starting out, simply let him walk away.”
Jill Lepore; Hard News; The New Yorker; Jan 28, 2019.

See more usage examples of weasel in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: