stoat

/ˈstəʊt/US/ˈstoʊt/

stoat noun: mustela erminea, the ermine or short-tailed weasel, a mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip.

Image: Marton Berntsen, crop by MPF, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

stoat (plural stoats)

Mustela erminea, the ermine or short-tailed weasel, a mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip.
- I have never seen Stoats hunt in packs, but it is certain both Weasels and Stoats do so.1886, Transactions of the Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club, volume 1, page 135
- In 1953 it was reported that the stoat had increased to a high population level, but that the weasel introduced at the same time had disappeared (de Vos et al. 1956).2003, John Long, Introduced Mammals of the World: Their History, Distribution and Influence, page 272
Synonyms:

clubster, ermine, short-tailed weasel

Verb

stoat (third-person singular simple present stoats, present participle stoating, simple past and past participle stoated)

(transitive) To stitch (edges of relatively thick cloth, fur, etc, for example on either side of a join or tear) together in a way that is invisible from the 'front', by sewing part of the way into and then back out of the thickness of the material from the 'back' side (without the thread going all the way through to the 'front' side of the material).
- to stoat two very ravelled edges1897 August 14, Work: The Illustrated Weekly Journal for Mechanics, volume XIV, number 439, published in collected form
- The tear to be stoated must have firm edges; it is impossible to stoat ravelled edges such as most serges have. The cloths which give the best results are vicunas, boxcloths, closely woven tweeds, meltons, and overcoatings.1901, Paul Nooncree Hasluck (editor), Tailoring (part of the “Work” Handbooks series), page 21

stoat meaning in Tamil

stoat in Tamil

இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும்

Synonyms of stoat

Forms of stoat

Noun
plural	stoats
Verb
third-person singular present	stoats
present participle	stoating
past participle	stoated
past	stoated
alternative form	stote

Origin of stoat

From Middle English stote (“the ermine, especially in its brown summer coat”), of uncertain origin. The word bears some resemblance to Old Norse stutr (“bull”), Swedish stut (“bull, steer”) and Danish stud (“steer”) (see also English stot), but the semantic link is difficult unless a common origin is from “(brown?) male mammal”. First attested in the mid 1400s.

Unclear. Attested in the spellings stott, stot, stote and stoat, all said (in early texts) to be pronounced the same as stoat. Possibly related to the animal stoat whose fur is used in making garments, or to stot(t) (“bounce, rebound”) as the stitch 'rebounds' off and does not pass through to the other side of the material.

Words formed from stoat

Words that rhyme with stoat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stoat

What does stoat mean?: Stoat means mustela erminea, the ermine or short-tailed weasel, a mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip.
What is stoat in Tamil?: Stoat in Tamil is இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும். See Stoat meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is stoat?: Stoat can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce stoat?: Stoat is pronounced /ˈstəʊt/ (UK).
What is the plural of stoat?: The plural of stoat is stoats.

Words near stoat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: stoat (page history and authors); stoat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stoat.wav.

Cite this entry: “stoat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stoat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.