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Wiktionary

weasel out

English

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Verb

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weasel out (third-person singular simple present weasels out, present participle weaseling out or weaselling out, simple past and past participle weaseled out or weaselled out)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive, often followed by of) To shirk, avoid, or fail to fulfill (a task, responsibility, etc.)
    Synonym: cop out
    Coordinate term: pass the buck
    • 1990 December 24, “Table of Contents: Is Uncle Sam Being Suckered?”, in Time:
      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.
    • 2009 September 10, “Obama's Big Test”, in Newsweek, retrieved 16 May 2011:
      And if they try to weasel out that way, Obama is warning them that he'll "call them out."
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To obtain or extract, especially by cunning methods.
    Synonyms: dig up, ferret out, sniff out
    • 1992 28 Sept., Stanley Reed, "Regarding Henry, Warily" (Book review of Kissinger by Walter Isaacson), Businessweek (retrieved 16 May 2011):
      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.
    • 1993 April 10, Steve McKerrow, “Movie shows cheerleader case getting too much media rah-rah”, in Baltimore Sun, page 1D:
      [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.

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