shrew

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I might also point out that Simon is defensibly colloquial in writing "I just returned ... from France" rather than "I have just returned ... from France."

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Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Any of various small, chiefly insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, resembling a mouse but having a long pointed snout and small eyes and ears. Also called shrewmouse.
  2. noun A woman with a violent, scolding, or nagging temperament; a scold.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples

  • Frau Haydn was a shrew, and he finally gave up trying to live at home, seeking his consolation at court with a young and beautiful Neapolitan singer, who was unhappily married to a poor fiddler, named Polzelli. —  The Love Affairs of Great Musicians
  • Noah's wife is an arrant shrew, and they fall at odds in the outset, both of them swearing by the Virgin Mary. —  Shakespeare His Life Art And Characters
  • I might also point out that Simon is defensibly colloquial in writing "I just returned ... from France" rather than "I have just returned ... from France." —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 2
  • 'A shrew, a money-grabber, not a believer, 'Bock, an atheist, said, somewhat to Qati's amusement. —  The Sum of all Fears
  • Our forefathers provided themselves with what they called a shrew-ash, in order to meet the case. —  Among the Trees at Elmridge
 

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Shrew has been looked up 410 times, favorited 0 times, listed 22 times, and commented on once.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

vole ·  churl ·  coquette ·  skunk ·  sprite
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English shrewe, villian, from Old English scrēawa, shrewmouse.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also shraw; from Middle English shrew, shrewe, schrewe, shrowe, also unassibilated screwe, wicked, evil, as a noun a wicked person (the shrewe, the evil one, the devil), from Anglo-Saxon *screáwa, a wicked person, found only in another sense, screáwa, a shrew-mouse (see shrew); both supposed to mean literally ‘biter’ (the bite of a shrew-mouse was formerly considered venomous), from √ skru, cut, seen in shred and shroud. For the later use of the noun as an adjective, and the still later extension of the adjective with past participle suffix -ed, -d, in shrewd, cf. wicked, which has a similar history in these respects. Cf. screw, a doublet of shrew.
  2. from Middle English *shrewe, from Anglo-Saxon screàwa, the shrew-mouse: supposed to mean literally ‘biter’: see shrew. Cf. G. dial, schermaus, a mole, from scheren (=E, shear), cut, + maus =English mouse.
 

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