- weasel; stoat; polecat; ferret. See also Foumart.
This word can be applied widely to members of the mustelidae family and so the definition given by John Burel in The Passage of the Pilgremer (1590) is still a good catch-all:
The quhittret... Ane litill beist of lim and lith And of ane sober schaip.
The name literally means 'white rat' and is therefore very apt for the stoat in his winter coat.
Another version of the 'hair of the dog' as a cure is described by Dr Gilbert Skeyne in Ane breve Descriptioun of the Pest (1568):
As the quhittrat beand hurt be venome of serpent seikis & eittis thairof.