squirrelly

• squirrely

From squirrel +‎ -ly, 1925.^[1] Presumably from the erratic movement of squirrels, or by analogy with nuts (“insane”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɝli/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɪɹəli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)li, -ɪɹəli

squirrelly (comparative squirrellier or more squirrelly, superlative squirrelliest or most squirrelly)

2. Resembling a squirrel.
   2. (of a person, figurative) Eccentric.

      Mom can act a bit squirrelly sometimes, and I swear it's usually worse after sunset.

      Near-synonyms: batty, nuts, nutty; see also Thesaurus:eccentric, Thesaurus:insane

      • 1998, Cory Doctorow, Craphound‎^[1]:

        Craphound had wicked yard-sale karma, for a rotten, filthy alien bastard. He was too good at panning out the single grain of gold in a raging river of uselessness for me not to like him — respect him, anyway. But then he found the cowboy trunk. It was two months' rent to me and nothing but some squirrelly alien kitsch-fetish to Craphound.

      • 2010 May 5, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Robert Dreyfuss, “The Meaning of Faisal 'Rorschach' Shahzad”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

        Dreyfuss wrote that "it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. […] ."

   4. (figurative) Unpredictable or jumpy.

      "This aircraft seems to be acting a bit squirrelly," the pilot complained uneasily to his copilot.

      • 2001 April 13, “Rumsfeld Hits China's 'Aggressive' Pattern”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

        "We got bumped. We got thumped," an American pilot was heard saying. A U.S. pilot also reported that a Chinese plane was "squirrely. Not real steady."

      • 2021 June 21, Charles Bramesco, “‘So, does it hold up?’: Fargo’s stars and co-creator on its 25th anniversary”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

        Buscemi relished the chance to portray the squirrelly, volatile crook Carl Showalter, a figure that came together only once the actor got dressed.

      • 2023 September 5, Elif Batuman, “Proust, ChatGPT and the case of the forgotten quote”, in The Guardian‎^[5], →ISSN:

        I wonder why it didn’t give me a direct quote. I hope it isn’t going to be squirrelly or weird about quotes. Maybe it’s stressed out about copyrighted translations. I’ll try asking for the original.

   6. (of an animal) Literally so.

      Some of these lemurs seem almost squirrelly.

• squirrelliness

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “squirrelly”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.