1771 T. Pennant Synopsis Quadrupeds 228 Four-toed Weesel.

1781 T. Pennant Hist. Quadrupeds II. 328 Fisher Weesel.

1781 T. Pennant Hist. Quadrupeds II. 338 Mexican Weesel.

1800 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. I. ii. 406 Malacca Weesel.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxxii. ix. 445 The liver also of the fish named the Sea-cat or Weazill, is given in like case.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Norfolk Birds in Wks. (1835) IV. 317 The..mustela variegata,..the variegated or party-coloured weasel, so called from the resemblance it beareth unto a weasel in the head.

1845 in C. Cist Cincinnati Misc. I. 240 The inhabitants of..S. Carolina [are called] Weasels.

1875 Chambers's Jrnl. 13 Mar. 171/2 South Carolina is Palmetto State, and the natives are Weasels.

1944 Yank 4 Aug. 17/2 Cargo carrier M29, nicknamed the Weasel, is now in full production.

1949 Sun (Baltimore) 8 Feb. 15/3 Second Army headquarters..is sending 48 ‘snow buggy’ operators..to the aid of snow~bound Nebraskans... Their main job will be to drive weasels, the Army's special vehicle for snow-covered terrain.

1958 Times 11 Nov. 6/7 The Weasel—one of the snow vehicles used by Sir Vivian Fuchs on his trans-Antarctic journey—was invented by a civilian, the late Mr. Geoffrey Pyke.

1964 ‘J. H. Roberts’ Q Document (1965) ix. 206 The hotels operated what the student referred to as ‘wesaru’—which..was the Japanese way of pronouncing ‘weasel’, a cross between a jeep and an army tank—to carry the guests.

1980 Globe & Laurel July 227/2 We in fact lost two vehicles doing this, one being my own command vehicle which was a cargo LVT with a weasel in the back.

1959 T. Griffith Waist-high Culture (1960) 83 The answer may have to be a ‘weasel’, the phrasing that avoids or begs the question.

1963 D. Ogilvy Confessions Advertising Man xi. 155 I plead guilty to one act of suggestio falsi—what Madison Avenue calls a ‘weasel’.

1975 Idle Moments (Austral.) Dec. 26/2 The ‘weasels’ are so cleverly written, so subtle, you hardly notice them at all.

1912 T. Roosevelt in Outlook 27 July 662/2 The weasel sentence about States' rights could well have been suggested by the astuteness of Mr. Bryan's fellow-Democrat Mr. Ryan.

1965 M. Naylor Your Money x. 59 If..other things remain equal.., the price will rise... It is now time to deal with that weasel qualification, ‘other things being equal’.

1974 R. M. Pirsig Zen & Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1976) iv. xxviii. 337 The whole business seemed to many of them merely a new and pretentious jargon of weasel concepts.

1979 Financial Rev. (Melbourne) 27 Apr. 2 The probability is that the commission will deliver another of its weasel judgements, recognising merit on all sides.

1804 T. Bewick Hist. Brit. Birds II. 266 (heading) Red-headed Smew, or Weesel Coot.

1885 C. Swainson Provinc. Names Brit. Birds 165 Weasel ducks or Weasel coots.

1773 Gentleman's Mag. 43 220 The Bladder Fish, and the Weasel Fish.

1877 Cassell's Nat. Hist. I. 223 This Weasel Lemur..has fair-sized ears, and its colours are of all sorts of shades of red, grey, white, and yellow.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Acct. Fishes Norfolk in Wks. (1835) IV. 328 Mustela Marina; called by some a weazel ling, which, salted and dried, becomes a good Lenten dish.

1591 G. Peele Speeches to Q. Eliz. in Wks. (1861) (modernized text) 579 This weasel-monger [i.e. a mole-catcher].

1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 530 Yellow Archangel. Yellow Dead Nettle, or Weasel snout.

1900 S. Chaplin in Cent. Mag. June 306/2 ‘The public should be protected—’ ‘Duly protected,’ said Gamage, ‘That's always a good weasel word.’

1916 N.Y. Times 1 June 1/2 Colonel Roosevelt began the day's speechmaking by opening his guns upon President Wilson... He accused Mr. Wilson of using ‘weaselwords’ in advocating universal military training, but ‘only the compulsion of the spirit of America’. A weasel, the Colonel explained, would suck all the meat out of an egg and leave it an empty shell.

1939 Florida: Guide to Southernmost State (Federal Writers' Project) i. 125 There were no ‘weasel word’ qualifications, such as ‘it is alleged’.

1952 G. Sarton Hist. Sci. I. xvi. 404 It is perhaps a little ambiguous to call them idealists. [Note] The weasel word idealist is sometimes understood as the opposite of realist.

1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society viii. 108 Whereas in the spheres of advertising, education and economics the use of weasel words tends to be towards gross overstatement, in the field of killing and mass destruction, the tendency is to understate and minimize.

1923 Ld. Charnwood Theodore Roosevelt x. 215 It is even comically reminiscent of the writer's own criticisms later of Mr. Wilson's ‘weasel-worded’ phrases.

1981 N.Y. Times 29 Mar. 4/1 The facts it contained did not support what one official termed the agency's ‘weasel-worded’ conclusion.

1975 L. Deighton Yesterday's Spy xii. 99 He..‘weaseled’ luggage for the boat-train passengers and was not above stealing the occasional camera.

1975 Observer 30 Nov. 22/4 My sole achievement was weaselling a medical certificate out of my G.P.

1956 H. Kurnitz Invasion of Privacy xii. 81 Never could get along with lawyers... Bunch of weaseling doubletalkers.

1969 Listener 31 July 132/2 ‘Legitimate puffery’ is often plain lying. At best, it encourages ‘weaselling’—the use of meaningless and unverifiable formulae like ‘Bloggo is better’; at worst, it is demonstrably fraudulent.

1978 N.Y. Times 30 Mar. d 18/1 Arum says there has been heavy pressure for a return bout from all over the world. He offers this as justification for his weaseling out of a commitment to match Spinks with Ken Norton.