Obs. [f. the sb.] a. intr. To hunt squirrels. Also fig. b. trans. To hunt or chase like squirrels. Hence † Squirreling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1589. ? Lyly, Pappe w. Hatchet, B ij. Obscenitie? Naie, now I am too nice, squirrilitie were a better word: well, let me alone to squirrell them.
1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, II. ii. I thinke Lucio be gone a squirelling, but Ile squirell him for it.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 540. Which we might worthely call a phrensie if it had not some support of grauer men, then are those squirriling Iesuits.
1667. Cotton, Scarron., IV. 83. But young Ascanius, hops o’ th’ house, Car’d not for Squirreling a Louse.
