weazle

plural weazles

1. obsoleteObsolete form of weasel.

   That a madman like Hamlet, should see a weazle in the clouds is likely enough, but that he should find a hundred, like Polonious, to see it too, looks strange.

   1808, “Letter V. From the Right Hon. C. J. Fox, in the Shades—to the Members of his dispersed Party, in the Sun-shine.”, in Anticipation, on Politics, Commerce, and Finance, During the Present Crisis. Containing Twenty-two Letters, from Old Politicians in the Shades, to Young Politicians in the Sun-shine. […], volume I, London: […] W. Glindon, […], page 128, column 1

   2 more examples

   […] I have made only ſketches of them, becauſe it is very probable that I may yet be under the neceſſity of giving the portraits at full length, and of writing under thoſe portraits the names of the weazles, wolves, and vultures they are meant to deſcribe—nay, even to detail at length the unexampled conduct of theſe perſons who have compelled me, being “Perplex’d in the extreme,” to have recourſe to my pen for a ſubſiſtence, […]

   1794 July 30 (date written), Charlotte Smith, “Preface”, in The Banished Man. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) […], →OCLC, pages ix–x

   Fertile land is no better than a barren rock, when myriads of locusts come “wasping on the wind” to devour up all its green fruits; or if the husbandman harvests his crop to be devoured in the store-house by millions of weazles and ants.

   1828, Willard Phillips, A Manual of Political Economy, with Particular Reference to the Institutions, Resources, and Condition of the United States, Boston, Mass.: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, page 105