Polecat is also cowboy slang for a skunk. Proper usage is along these lines:

"That dad-blasted polecat done up and sprayed all mah ten gallon hats. If'n that ain't the rootin tootinest stank ah ever did lay mah nose on, I'll be a three-legged horny toad. Yee-haw!"

This is how cowboys actually talk at all times.

Pole"cat` (?), n. [Probably fr. F. poule hen, and originally, a poultry cat, because it feeds on poultry. See Poultry.] Zool. (a)

A small European carnivore of the Weasel family (Putorius fetidus). Its scent glands secrete a substance of an exceedingly disagreeable odor. Called also fitchet, foulmart, and European ferret.

(b)

The zorilla. The name is also applied to other allied species.

 

© Webster 1913.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.