polecats

Noun

polecat (plural polecats)

1. Any of several long-bodied mammals of the subfamilies Mustelinae and Ictonychinae, both in the weasel family Mustelidae.
   1. Notably, the European polecat, Mustela putorius.
      • For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war...1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat, Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237
2. (Appalachia, Texas) A skunk.
3. A base or despicable person; a wretch.
   • ‘Bear thyself like a Knight with a sword in hand, or else I shall call thee a base caitiff and polecat.’1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 56
4. A tubular device used to support lights on a set.
   • This is adjustable telescopic tubing, wedged securely between floor and ceiling (vertical pole) or wall-to-wall (horizontal pole), within corridors, arches, window openings, doorways, etc. It may be held in position by a strong internal spring or end-screws. Designs include polecat, varipole...1991, Gerald Millerson, The Technique of Lighting for Television and Film, page 323