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View synonyms for weasel word

weasel word

noun

  1. a word used to temper the forthrightness of a statement; a word that makes one's views equivocal, misleading, or confusing.


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Other Words From

  • weasel-worded adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of weasel word1

An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900
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Idioms and Phrases

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]
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Example Sentences

When he even pretended to be moderate on abortion with his weasel words around the Florida ban, anti-choice activists threw a fit.

From Salon

"The field is replete with weasel words and unfortunately one of those is consciousness," says Prof Stevan Harnad of Quebec University.

From BBC

“The U.S. has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can ‘seek to raise’ the First Amendment if extradited,” his wife, Stella Assange, said.

Stella Assange said the “so-called assurances” were made up of “weasel words.”

Rodgers and others have deployed “influence” as a weasel word, meant to deflect attention from, shade or soften the unambiguous meanings of “rule,” “reign,” “govern” and “dominion.”

From Salon

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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