Dictionary

weasel out en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (followed by of, idiomatic, intransitive, often) To shirk, avoid, or fail to fulfill (a task, responsibility, etc.)
   • And if they try to weasel out that way, Obama is warning them that he'll "call them out." 2009 September 10, “Obama's Big Test”, in Newsweek, retrieved 16 May 2011:
   • With the costs of Desert Shield likely to double, Congress fumes at those allies who seem to be weaseling out of their pledges to help. 1990 December 24, “Table of Contents: Is Uncle Sam Being Suckered?”, in Time:
2. (idiomatic, transitive) To obtain or extract, especially by cunning methods.
   • In an effort to ingratiate himself with the 1968 Nixon campaign, Kissinger offered inside tips that he had weaseled out of friends privy to the Johnson Administration's talks with the North Vietnamese. 1992 28 Sept., Stanley Reed, "Regarding Henry, Warily" (Book review of Kissinger by Walter Isaacson), Businessweek (retrieved 16 May 2011)
   • [S]ome of the characters we see among the blitzing media—a Houston TV reporter, an "Inside Edition" researcher and this film's producer and writer, James Manos Jr. and Jane Anderson—play themselves, each trying to weasel out the real inside story. 1993 April 10, Steve McKerrow, “Movie shows cheerleader case getting too much media rah-rah”, in Baltimore Sun, page 1D:

Forms

Coordinates

pass the buck

Synonyms

cop out · sniff out · dig up · ferret out

Translations (20)

pl wymigiwać się (to weasel out of doing something) · es esquivar (to weasel something out of someone) · pl wić się jak piskorz (to weasel something out of someone) · es esquivar[se] (to weasel out of doing something) · fi huiputtaa (to weasel something out of someone) · pl wycwanić się (to weasel out of doing something) · es eludir[se] (to weasel out of doing something) · es eludir (to weasel something out of someone) · ru отверте́ться (to weasel something out of someone) · fi kieroilla (to weasel something out of someone) · es vaguear (to weasel something out of someone) · pl wykręcić się (to weasel out of doing something) · fi kiemurrella (to weasel out of doing something) · pl wykręcać się (to weasel out of doing something) · pl wymigać się (to weasel out of doing something) · ru уви́ливать (to weasel out of doing something) · es escabullirse (to weasel out of doing something) · ru увильну́ть (to weasel out of doing something) · pl wić się jak piskorz (to weasel out of doing something) · fi lusmuilla (to weasel out of doing something)