weasel out

present singular third person weasels out · US participle present weaseling out · UK participle present weaselling out · US participle past weaseled out · US past weaseled out · UK participle past weaselled out · UK past weaselled out

1. idiomaticintransitiveoftenTo shirk, avoid, or fail to fulfill (a task, responsibility, etc.)

   And if they try to weasel out that way, Obama is warning them that he'll "call them out."

   2009 September 10, “Obama's Big Test”, in Newsweek, retrieved 16 May 2011

   1 more example

   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.

   1990 December 24, “Table of Contents: Is Uncle Sam Being Suckered?”, in Time

   Synonyms: cop out

2. idiomatictransitiveTo obtain or extract, especially by cunning methods.

   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.

   1992 28 Sept., Stanley Reed, "Regarding Henry, Warily" (Book review of Kissinger by Walter Isaacson), Businessweek (retrieved 16 May 2011)

   1 more example

   [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.

   1993 April 10, Steve McKerrow, “Movie shows cheerleader case getting too much media rah-rah”, in Baltimore Sun, page 1D

   Synonyms: dig up, ferret out, sniff out