gray squirrel

[ grey skwur-uhl, skwuhr‐ ]

noun

1. a gray-colored arboreal squirrel: North American species include the eastern gray squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis ) of the eastern and midwestern U.S. and southeastern Canada, the western gray squirrel ( S. griseus ) of the coastal western U.S. and Mexico, the Arizona gray squirrel ( S. arizonensis ) of eastern Arizona and adjacent Mexico, and the Mexican gray squirrel ( S. aureogaster ), found from Guatemala north through eastern Mexico to the Florida Keys.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gray squirrel¹

An Americanism dating back to 1615–25

Example Sentences

On they came, day after day, a great, unrelenting tide of Sciurus carolinensis: the Eastern gray squirrel.

From Washington Post

Wrote Seton in “Migration of the Gray Squirrel,” his 1920 paper in the Journal of Mammalogy: “Such numbers seem incredible, and yet that is what the old naturalists said they were, unbelievable, incredible, etc.”

From Washington Post

You reviewed my picture and you were like, ‘Yeah, that is a squirrel. An Eastern gray squirrel.’’’

From New York Times

In the process of reporting this article, Amy Harmon photographed an animal she saw in Riverside Park in Manhattan and experienced unironic elation when strangers in New York, California and Louisianaidentified it as an Eastern gray squirrel.

From New York Times

Birdfeeders may need squirrel-proof housing to avoid interlopers like the non-native gray squirrel.

From Seattle Times