Word.ws English Dictionary

wild weasel

wild weasel noun: an attack airplane specialized for attacking anti-aircraft defenses (AADs), typically surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and radar control stations, typically with anti-radiation missiles (ARMs).

Noun

wild weasel (plural wild weasels)

  1. (US) An attack airplane specialized for attacking anti-aircraft defenses (AADs), typically surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and radar control stations, typically with anti-radiation missiles (ARMs).
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wild, weasel.

Forms of wild weasel

pluralwild weasels

Origin of wild weasel

Genericization of the codename Wild Weasel of the first aircraft tasked with the anti-SAM role in the USAF during the Vietnam War. From the dancing of weasels in the wild and their behavior of hunting snakes, contrasted with the maneuvering of the wild weasel aircraft and their hunting of SAMs.

Questions about wild weasel

What does wild weasel mean?
Wild weasel means an attack airplane specialized for attacking anti-aircraft defenses (AADs), typically surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and radar control stations, typically with anti-radiation missiles (ARMs).
What part of speech is wild weasel?
Wild weasel is a noun.
What is the plural of wild weasel?
The plural of wild weasel is wild weasels.

Words near wild weasel in the dictionary

  1. wild turkey
  2. wild turkeys
  3. wild turmeric
  4. wild type
  5. wild types
  6. wild weasel
  7. wild weasels
  8. wild wee
  9. wild wees
  10. wild west
  11. wild western

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wild weasel (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.

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