catch a weasel asleep

To surprise someone who is normally alert, shrewd, or on-guard. Primarily heard in US. You want to try to steal your transcript from the principal's office? You never catch a weasel asleep—and especially not that one! Good luck catching a weasel asleep in this case. I mean, this is Mom we're talking about—she hears everything and will definitely hear you sneaking out of the house. I just don't see you pulling off this prank on Tim. He's wily, and it’s hard to catch a weasel asleep.

weasel

slang

1. noun Someone who is sneaky, devious, or deceitful. Don't give Rich a dime—he's a lying weasel who will rob you blind with his stupid schemes. Quit being such a weasel and tell me what's really going on here.

2. verb To get into or out of some situation or position by sneaky, devious, or deceitful means. The slippery little good-for-nothing managed to weasel her way out of the financial train wreck she left behind at her last company. He has no qualifications or relevant experience, but he managed to weasel his way into a managerial position because his dad is friends with the CEO.

weasel (one's) way in(to something)

To succeed in entering some location, position, situation, etc., through tricky, sneaky, or deceitful means. He has no qualifications or relevant experience, but he managed to weasel his way into a managerial position because his dad is friends with the CEO. I thought Mike had finally gotten Sarah out of his life after everything she had put him through, but it seems that she's weaseled her way back in.

weasel (one's) way out of (something)

To succeed in extricating oneself from some unpleasant or undesirable situation, duty, or responsibility by tricky, sneaky, or deceitful means. He's always trying to weasel his way out of working the graveyard shift, but it won't work this time. The slippery little good-for-nothing managed to weasel her way out of the financial train wreck she left behind at the company. Many suspect the senator used his father's wealth and influence to weasel his way out of the military draft when he was in college.

weasel out (of something)

1. To squeeze out of a narrow space; to slink out (of something). It's a bit tight, but I think I can weasel out of this part of the cave. Stevie got stuck in the tunnel at the playground, but he was eventually able to weasel out.

2. To avoid a situation or responsibility through sly or devious means. Oh no, you're not weaseling out of doing the dishes this time. You can help Grandma later.

3. To elicit something from someone through sly or devious means. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "weasel" and "out." The reporter was known for being able to weasel information out of just about anyone she spoke to. I tried to refuse but eventually they weaseled a donation out of me.

See also: out, weasel

weasel words

Language employed to avoid directly stating a position or answering a question, or to enhance the appearance of something. Wikipedia discourages the use of weasel words in its encyclopedia entries to decrease the possibility of bias. If you read the transcript of his press conference, you'll see that there's barely any substances—it's nearly all weasel words.

you weasel

You sneaky person. You weasel! I can't believe you stole the song I was going to do for the audition!

weasel out

(of something)

1. Fig. to squeeze one's way out of something. Somehow, the child managed to weasel out of the hole she was stuck in. The mouse tried to weasel out.

2. Fig. to evade or avoid a job or responsibility. (Fig. on {2}.) Don't try to weasel out of your responsibility! You can't weasel out! You have to do it.

See also: out, weasel

weasel out

Back out of a situation or commitment, especially in a sneaky way. For example, I'd love to weasel out of serving on the board. This expression alludes to the stealthy hunting and nesting habits of the weasel, a small, slender-bodied predator. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]

See also: out, weasel

weasel word

A word used to deprive a statement of its force or evade a direct commitment, as in Calling it "organized spontaneity" is using a weasel word; "organized" has sucked the meaning out of "spontaneity." This idiom may allude to the weasel's habit of sucking the contents out of a bird's egg, so that only the shell remains. [Late 1800s]

weasel out

v. Slang

1. To back out of some situation or commitment in a selfish or sly manner: The party was boring—you were smart to weasel out early. My cousins weaseled out of contributing to the gift.

2. weasel out of To elicit something from someone by artful or devious means: At first, they wouldn't admit that they were to blame, but I weaseled the truth out of them.

See also: out, weasel

weasel

1. n. a sneaky person. If Fred weren’t such a weasel, we could get along better.

2. n. an earnest student. (Collegiate.) Martin is your classic weasel.

weasel out of something

in. to get out of doing something; to wiggle out of a responsibility. I know how to weasel out of something like that. You get a headache.

weasel word

A word that takes away the meaning from a statement, just as a weasel sucks the meat from an egg. The term dates from about 1900 and was popularized by Theodore Roosevelt. In a 1916 speech criticizing President Woodrow Wilson, Roosevelt said, “You can have universal training or you can have voluntary training but when you use the word ‘voluntary’ to qualify the word ‘universal’ you are using a weasel word; it has sucked all the meaning out of ‘universal.’ The two words flatly contradict one another.”

See also: weasel, word

See also:

References in periodicals archive

Screeching Weasel's roots stretch back more than 30 years, to the Northwest suburbs during the mid-1980s.

Still Screeching

The easiest way to tell the difference is that a stoat has a black-tipped tail and a weasel does not.

GO WILD with eric paylor

Residents have resorted to sealing their doors and windows, installing barbed wires around their premises, setting up scarecrows and even putting on Quran recitations on speakers because they claim the weasels do not like loud noise.

VIDEO: Buhair alert over weasels

Despite moving on, Weasel says he had to stop going out when Radio died.

I accepted that Radio is gone and moved on, says Weasel

"Although Steasel is very cute, weasels are Britain's smallest carnivore and once he's fully grown he will be able to pursue mice and voles in their burrows."

Lost Steasel the weasel is on the mend

Weasels inheriting just one copy of the low-fertility gene would end up with two copies, which they'd pass down to offspring.

'Gene drives' are too risky for field trials

He had actually gone up to Weasel's cabin in Wisconsin to play with ATVs and guns on his home gun range.

Sometimes ya win

The Hunter Killers: The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War.

The Hunter Killers: The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War

We relocated each radio-collared weasel once daily (4-7 times per week), and attempted to obtain locations at night by occasionally rotating the weekly sampling to a different six-hour observation block.

Space use, movements, and rest site use by short-tailed weasels Mustela erminea in managed forests of western Oregon

Spokesman Arnaud Marsollier said the weasel died - and little remains of it.

Weasel pops in to stop LHC; WORLD BULLETINS

But it was not what I thought, and I wrapped my freshly dead and newly found weasel in newspaper, photographed it, measured it -- and it was big, very, very big and the following day took it to AUC.

In Search Of The Egyptian Hedgehog

The Speech from the Throne referred specifically to Bill 22 and a new Indigenous People's Sacred Ceremonial Objects Repatriation Act, but Weasel Head wants to know what else is on the table.

Grand Chief says it's time for provincial government to put action to words

In the order Carnivora, there have been many SEM studies of the tongues of cat (Boshell et al, 1982; Kobayashi et al., 1988), dog (Iwasaki & Sakata, 1985; Kobayashi et al., 1987), mongoos (Iwasaki et al, 1987), Japanese weasel (Furubayashi et al., 1989), sea otter (Shimoda et al., 1996), Asian black bear (Inatomi & Kobayashi, 1999), bush dog (Emura et al., 2000), panther and Asian black bear (Emura et al., 2001), lion (Emura et al., 2003), tiger (Emura et al., 2004), silver fox (Jackowiak & Godynicki, 2004), raccoon dog and fox (Emura et al., 2006), Japanese marten (Emura et al, 2007), ferret and Siberian weasel (Emura, 2008) and ferret (Takemura et al, 2009).

Morphology of the Lingual Papillae in the Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis)/ Morfologia de las Papilas Linguales en la Comadreja Comun (Mustela nivalis)

DOUG Shield claims 'climate change' is a "weasel" expression because climate has been changing for 4.6 billion years, and Mr Shield should know, because his letter is full of weasel words.

Talk science not semantics; Letters