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Webster 1913 Edition
Polecat
Pole′catˊ
,Noun.
[Probably fr. F.
poule
hen, and originally, a poultry cat, because it feeds on poultry. See Poultry
.] (Zool.)
(a)
A small European carnivore of the Weasel family (
Putorius fœtidus
). Its scent glands secrete a substance of an exceedingly disagreeable odor. Called also fitchet
, foulmart
, and European ferret
. (b)
The zorilla. The name is also applied to other allied species.
Webster 1828 Edition
Polecat
PO'LECAT
,Noun.
Definition 2024
polecat
polecat
English
A marbled polecat (weasel-like animal).
Noun
polecat (plural polecats)
- A weasel-like animal of the genus Mustela
- notably, the European polecat, Mustela putorius.
- 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 61
- By the little garden pergola open to the winds some fluttered peacocks were blotted nervelessly amid the dripping trees, their heads sunk back beneath their wings: while in the pergola itself, like a fallen storm-cloud, lolled a negress, her levelled, polecat eyes semi-veiled by the nebulous alchemy of the rainbow.
- (US, dialect) A skunk.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Mustela putorius
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skunk — see skunk