different between weaselly vs taxonomy

English

Alternative forms

• weasely

Etymology

weasel +? -y

Adjective

weaselly (comparative more weaselly, superlative most weaselly)

1. Resembling a weasel (in appearance).
   • 1857, George Borrow, The Romany Rye, London: John Murray, 2nd edition, 1858, Volume 2, Appendix, Chapter 11, p. 359,^[1]

     The writer had just entered into his eighteenth year, when he met at the table of a certain Anglo-Germanist an individual, apparently somewhat under thirty, of middle stature, a thin and weaselly figure, a sallow complexion, a certain obliquity of vision, and a large pair of spectacles.

   • 1942, Agatha Christie, The Body in the Library, New York: Pocket Books, 1965, Chapter 6, p. 54,^[2]

     “Pretty?”

     […] Mr. Prestcott considered. “Fair to middling. Bit weaselly, if you know what I mean. Wouldn’t have been much without makeup. As it was, she managed to look quite attractive.”

   • 1956, Ian Fleming, Diamonds Are Forever, London: Pan Books, 1958, Chapter 13,^[3]

     At three minutes past six the door opened to admit the naked, scrawny figure of Tingaling Bell. He had a sharp weasely face and a miserable body on which each bone showed.

   • 2015, John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries, Knopf Canada, Chapter 1,

     That was when the constantly complaining but unseen dog showed itself, if it was actually a dog. The weaselly little creature crawled out from under the couch—more rodential than canine, Pepe thought.

2. Devious; cunning; misleading; sneaky.
   • 1864, W. S. Gilbert, “Sixty-Three and Sixty-Four” originally published in Fun, V (2 January 1864), p. 162, later published in Bab Ballads, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970, p. 37,^[4]

     With intellect weaselly, artist has easily earned all his bacon and greens by it,

     And now that it’s done and all ready for Fun, it’s my duty to say what he means by it.

   • 1927, John Masefield, The Midnight Folk, London: Heinemann, p. 221,^[5]

     “Ah was vara weaselly. Ah wasna going home without yon stoof for Captain Harker. Vara coonning ah was.”

   • 1947, William B. King and Frank O’Brien, The Balkans: Frontier of Two Worlds, New York: Knopf, Chapter 19, p. 239,^[6]

     Hüseyin Numan Menemencio?lu could see no good reason why this weasely document should not be interpreted so as to keep Turkey out of a war in which he and the other Turkish leaders were convinced she could do no better than be uselessly crushed […]

   • 1967, Richard Lockridge, With Option to Die, Philadelphia: Lippincott, Chapter 2, p. 30,^[7]

     “There’s a poem I like,” Harry said. “By Robert Graves. About cats. Cats, he says, make their point by walking round it. It’s all right for cats. For humans, as you say—weaselly. Why don’t they come out with it?”

Anagrams

• eyewalls, walleyes

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French taxonomie. Surface analysis taxo- +? -nomy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tæk?s?n?mi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tæk?s??n?mi/
• Rhymes: -?n?mi

Noun

taxonomy (countable and uncountable, plural taxonomies)

1. The science or the technique used to make a classification.
2. A classification; especially, a classification in a hierarchical system.
3. (taxonomy, uncountable) The science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms.

Synonyms

• taxonomics
• (science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms): alpha taxonomy

Coordinate terms

• nomenclature
• ontology

Derived terms

Translations