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squirrelly. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
squirrel + -ly, 1925. Presumably from erratic movement of squirrels, or by analogy with nuts (“insane”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
squirrelly (comparative squirrellier or more squirrelly, superlative squirrelliest or most squirrelly)
- Resembling a squirrel.
- (figurative) Unpredictable or jumpy.
2001 April 13, “Rumsfeld Hits China's 'Aggressive' Pattern”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:"We got bumped. We got thumped," an American pilot was heard saying. A U.S. pilot also reported that a Chinese plane was "squirrely. Not real steady."
2021 June 21, Charles Bramesco, “‘So, does it hold up?’: Fargo’s stars and co-creator on its 25th anniversary”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:Buscemi relished the chance to portray the squirrelly, volatile crook Carl Showalter, a figure that came together only once the actor got dressed.
2023 September 5, Elif Batuman, “Proust, ChatGPT and the case of the forgotten quote”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:I wonder why it didn’t give me a direct quote. I hope it isn’t going to be squirrelly or weird about quotes. Maybe it’s stressed out about copyrighted translations. I’ll try asking for the original.
- Eccentric.
1998, Cory Doctorow, Craphound:Craphound had wicked yard-sale karma, for a rotten, filthy alien bastard. He was too good at panning out the single grain of gold in a raging river of uselessness for me not to like him — respect him, anyway. But then he found the cowboy trunk. It was two months' rent to me and nothing but some squirrelly alien kitsch-fetish to Craphound.
2010 May 5, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Robert Dreyfuss, “The Meaning of Faisal 'Rorschach' Shahzad”, in The Atlantic:Dreyfuss wrote that "it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. […] ."
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