What is "squirrel"

Squirrel \Squir"rel\ (skw[~e]r"r[e^]l or skw[i^]r"-; 277), n. [OE. squirel, OF. esquirel, escurel, F. ['e]cureuil, LL. squirelus, squirolus, scuriolus, dim. of L. sciurus, Gr. si`oyros; skia` shade + o'yra` tail. Cf. Shine, v. i.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small rodents belonging to the genus Sciurus and several allied genera of the family Sciurid[ae]. Squirrels generally have a bushy tail, large erect ears, and strong hind legs. They are commonly arboreal in their habits, but many species live in burrows.

   Note: Among the common North American squirrels are the gray squirrel ( Sciurus Carolinensis) and its black variety; the fox, or cat, squirrel ( Sciurus cinereus, or Sciurus niger) which is a large species, and variable in color, the southern variety being frequently black, while the northern and western varieties are usually gray or rusty brown; the red squirrel (see Chickaree); the striped, or chipping, squirrel (see Chipmunk); and the California gray squirrel ( Sciurus fossor). Several other species inhabit Mexico and Central America. The common European species ( Sciurus vulgaris) has a long tuft of hair on each ear. The so-called Australian squirrels are marsupials. See Petaurist, and Phalanger.

2. One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder. Barking squirrel (Zo["o]l.), the prairie dog. Federation squirrel (Zo["o]l.), the striped gopher. See Gopher, 2. Flying squirrel (Zo["o]l.). See Flying squirrel, in the Vocabulary. Java squirrel. (Zo["o]l.). See Jelerang. Squirrel corn (Bot.), a North American herb ( Dicentra Canadensis) bearing little yellow tubers. Squirrel cup (Bot.), the blossom of the Hepatica triloba, a low perennial herb with cup-shaped flowers varying from purplish blue to pink or even white. It is one of the earliest flowers of spring. Squirrel fish. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. A sea bass ( Serranus fascicularis) of the Southern United States.

   2. The sailor's choice ( Diplodus rhomboides).

   3. The redmouth, or grunt.

   4. A market fish of Bermuda ( Holocentrum Ascensione). Squirrel grass (Bot.), a pestiferous grass ( Hordeum murinum) related to barley. In California the stiffly awned spikelets work into the wool of sheep, and into the throat, flesh, and eyes of animals, sometimes even producing death. Squirrel hake (Zo["o]l.), a common American hake ( Phycis tenuis); -- called also white hake. Squirrel hawk (Zo["o]l.), any rough-legged hawk; especially, the California species Archibuteo ferrugineus. Squirrel monkey. (Zo["o]l.)

      1. Any one of several species of small, soft-haired South American monkeys of the genus Callithrix. They are noted for their graceful form and agility. See Teetee.

      2. A marmoset.

         Squirrel petaurus (Zo["o]l.), a flying phalanger of Australia. See Phalanger, Petaurist, and Flying phalanger under Flying.

         Squirrel shrew (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of East Indian and Asiatic insectivores of the genus Tupaia. They are allied to the shrews, but have a bushy tail, like that of a squirrel.

         Squirrel-tail grass (Bot.), a grass ( Hordeum jubatum) found in salt marshes and along the Great Lakes, having a dense spike beset with long awns.

early 14c., from Anglo-French esquirel, Old French escurueil "squirrel; squirrel fur" (Modern French écureuil), from Vulgar Latin *scuriolus, diminutive of *scurius "squirrel," variant of Latin sciurus, from Greek skiouros "a squirrel," literally "shadow-tailed," from skia "shadow" (see shine (v.)) + oura "tail," from PIE root *ors- "buttocks, backside" (see arse). Perhaps the original notion is "that which makes a shade with its tail." The Old English word was acweorna, which survived into Middle English as aquerne.

"to hoard up, store away" (as a squirrel does nuts), 1939, from squirrel (n.). Related: Squirreled; squirreling.

n. 1 Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae distinguished by their large bushy tail. 2 (context Scientology often disparaging English) A person, usually a freezoner, who applies L. Ron Hubbard's technology in a heterodox manner. 3 One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder. vb. (context transitive English) To store in a secretive manner, to hide something for future use

1. n. a kind of arboreal rodent having a long bushy tail

2. the fur of a squirrel

Squirrel is a distributed hash table (DHT) web cache system designed to share the web caches of participating users. When a user requests a file, Squirrel contacts the member of a DHT who should be the owner of that file, and gets it from that member (referred to as home-store). Alternately, it can look up the file from that "owning" member, and return a list of other users who have recently downloaded the file, and get it from them (referred to as directory-store). Directory-store turns out to be slightly slower.

The squirrel is a rodent in the family Sciuridae.

Squirrel or squirrels may also refer to:

Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, consisting of small or medium-size rodents. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots (including woodchucks), flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and have been introduced to Australia. The earliest known squirrels date from the Eocene and are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormouse among living rodent families.

Squirrel was a Canadian brand of peanut butter, marketed from about 1915 to about 2000.

Squirrel (1754–1780) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. He won seven of his nine races, including the 1400 Guineas Stakes and match races against Dapper and Jason. He was also a successful stallion, siring Craven Stakes winner Firetail. However he was more well known for producing broodmares, siring the dams of seven Classic winners including Derby winner Noble, along with the dam of champion sire Trumpator. Squirrel was owned by Jenison Shafto.

Squirrel is a high level imperative, object-oriented programming language, designed to be a light-weight scripting language that fits in the size, memory bandwidth, and real-time requirements of applications like video games and hardware such as Electric Imp.

MirthKit, a simple toolkit for making and distributing open source, cross-platform 2D games, uses Squirrel for its platform. It is used extensively by Code::Blocks for scripting and was also used in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King It is also used in Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 for scripted events.

A squirrel is a term in debating jargon, particularly in parliamentary debate, that indicates a definition from the side of the opening speaker that makes it too easy for his or her side. The first speaker in a debate, who is defending the motion or proposition, generally has to define the terms used in the motion. When this definition is done in an unexpected way, it can favour the opening side, because that side had been able to prepare for the particular interpretation in the preparation time. For example, if the motion read "This House Would dissolve the police", it would be a squirrel to refer to the band The Police instead of the police. Another squirrel in this case, that helps the opening side by making the debate generally easier for them, is to add unreasonable exceptions to the motion. For example, defending "dissolving the police" except in cases where it has to "uphold the law" is rather easy.

In competitive debating, judges usually consider a squirrel a negative thing. There is, however, no clear standard on what constitutes a squirrel, and the judges have to decide this on their own. Sometimes the other side in the debate tries to notify the judges of the squirrel. A notable example is the so-called "open motion" debate, where debaters are expected to come up with their own far-fetched interpretation of an ambiguous motion.

A squirrel can also refer to an affirmative so obscure that there is no known negative against it. These cases are rare and will typically win the round for the affirmative team.