to be a weasel
1
9.7
- idiom
- Offensive
- After making a mistake, he tried to be a weasel and shift the blame to his coworker.
Examples
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The only other American on this patrol and it had to be a weasel like you.
-
Sen. Hutchinson is a weasel.
Blog text (8) -
Of course you're being a weasel about this.
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This ain't the guy we're looking for, the dude is a weasel.
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Kevin McCabe is a weasel.
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He's a weasel.
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He's always trying to weasel out of his commitments to the team.
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When faced with tough questions, she tends to weasel around the issues instead of answering directly.
Synonyms
71
5.3
To avoid answering a question or facing responsibility by giving unclear answers
63
6.8
To avoid doing something you are supposed to do
21
8.0
To avoid responsibility by acting in a sneaky or dishonest way
11
8.2
To avoid doing something you should do by being dishonest or tricky
10
7.7
To avoid giving a clear answer or decision
7
9.9
To use unclear words to avoid giving a direct answer or telling the truth
3
9.1
To avoid giving a direct answer to hide the truth
1
8.1
To avoid answering a question by giving a vague answer
To avoid taking responsibility by lying or being vague
Antonyms
How Deceitful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'weasel' commonly functions as an insulting label meaning 'a deceitful or evasive person', and the construction 'be a X' straightforwardly means 'to have the qualities of X'. Because the metaphorical human sense of 'weasel' is lexicalized and the composition follows a simple, cross-linguistically common pattern (calling someone an animal to indicate a trait), a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Be a weasel comes from the small animal, the weasel, which slips into holes, steals eggs, and often escapes traps, so people pictured someone who is sneaky and hard to catch. So, to be a weasel means 'to try to trick others or to avoid blame or responsibility'.