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stoat

UK/ˈstəʊt/US/ˈstoʊt/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,200 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: stoats

A stoat is a small fierce hunting animal related to the weasel. A stoat in the hedge, the stoat's black tail tip, a hunting stoat.

It turns white in winter in the north and is then called ermine, and the black tail tip stays black, which is what makes the spotted fur of state robes. It kills rabbits several times its own size.

Marton Berntsen, crop by User:MPF · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of stoat

  1. 1nounstoatA small fierce hunting animal related to the weasel.C1

    “A stoat darted across the path with a mouse in its mouth.”

stoat is an animal.

Where it comes from

Middle English stote names the animal, of unknown origin.

  1. Middle English

    stote — the ermine, especially in its brown summer coat

  2. English, today

    stoat

From Middle English stote (“the ermine, especially in its brown summer coat”), of unknown origin. The word bears some resemblance to Old Norse stutr (“bull”), Swedish stut (“bull, steer”) and Danish stud (“steer”) (see also English stot), but the semantic link is difficult unless a common origin is from “(brown?) male mammal”. mid 1400s.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

stoat in the wild

  • The stoat (Mustela erminea), also known as the Eurasian ermine or ermine, is a species of mustelid native to Eurasia and the northern regions of North America.

    Stoat

  • The name ermine () is used especially in its pure white winter coat of the stoat or its fur.

    Stoat

  • The long-tailed weasel (Neogale frenata), also known as the bridled weasel, masked ermine, or big stoat, is a species of weasel found in North, Central, and South America.

    Long-tailed weasel

  • Other wildlife includes otter, stoat and weasel along with 11 species of dragonfly and damselfly and 22 different butterflies.

    Conwy RSPB reserve

  • The stoat (Mustela erminea) was introduced into New Zealand to control introduced rabbits and hares, but turned out to be a major threat to the native bird population.

    Stoat in New Zealand

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.