Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A female fox.
- n. A woman regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, or malicious.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A she-fox.
- n. Hence A turbulent, quarrelsome woman; a scold; a termagant: formerly used occasionally of a man.
- Vixenish.
Wiktionary
- n. A female fox.
- n. A malicious, quarrelsome or temperamental woman.
- n. colloquial A racy or salacious woman.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Obs. or Prov. Eng. A female fox.
- n. A cross, ill-tempered person; -- formerly used of either sex, now only of a woman.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a malicious woman with a fierce temper
- n. a female fox
Etymologies
- From Old English fixen ("of a fox"), fyxen. Voiced v- is from Southern dialect. Compare German Füchsin. See also fox. (Wiktionary)
- From dialectal alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's nothing that says exhausted, cranky and nauseous like vixen, is there?”
“When a vixen is voted off, Rose will brandish a gun and a rose, scream, “You’re Gonna Diiiiiie!” and then shoot her.”
““I am a vixen, a female fox,” she had replied with a quiver of her nostrils, and Claudia had immediately recognized that a vixen was a very grand and glorious thing to be.”
“Having spent some time recently as a cancer victim, I can say right here and right now that the word vixen was never in my vocabulary.”
“In the book a speaker writes about her, that "Comet of stillness, princess of what is over/high note held without trembling without voice without sound/aura of complete darkness keeper of the kept secrets" The vixen is a sentient creature endowed with both a totally modern mind as well as deep old foresty knowledge, and so is the consciousness of the poems themselves.”
“The female, called a vixen, prepares a den before she bears the young.”
“The female fox is called a vixen, but if a human is called a vixen, the connotation is an attractive but cunning woman!”
“In particular, one of the alleged spies, 28-year-old Anna Chapman, is getting a lot of attention because of her "vixen" looks and lingerie shots on Facebook.”
“(Don't forget, promo code "vixen" gets you 5\% off, which is a wicked good deal!)”
“But Caskett 'shippers shouldn't worry too much: We hear this particular vixen also hides a surprising secret from the team.”
Castle Scoop: The Killing Star to Come Between Castle and Beckett?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vixen’.
-
Words that shouldn't be used on a fir...
probation, trekkie, wart, unemployed, fetish, suspended driver'..., felon, aerophagia, undies, debt collector, girlfriend, boyfriend and 272 more...
-
henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
-
dogs and their relatives
dog dogs and more dogs anything
I can think of ,canids and their
relatives
my favourite African wild dog
all have 42 teethaffenpinscher, akita, alan, aland, alant, alopecoid, apso, bandog, barbet, basenji, basset, bawtie and 355 more...
-
You animal!
Names of animals that are also used to describe kinds of people. Nouns only, preferably single word.
For a related list, see sionnach's beastly verbs.rabbit, shark, hog, pussycat, bear, bull, skunk, hawk, wildcat, buck, slug, heifer and 112 more...
-
femanimales
Animal words and phrases that are used when talking about women. Some of these are found offensive, but this can be discussed on the words' pages. This list is just a list.
pussy, kitten, cougar, beaver, bitch, chick, jenny, cow, filly, vixen, fox, la passera and 10 more...
-
Scold
scold, callet, callat, catamaran, rixatrix, bard, vixen, nagger, termagant, chider, lambaster, frabber and 9 more...
-
kickassery
words that kick ass, in the non-literal sense
keraunophilia, vituperative, archnemesis, megafauna, Brontotherium, haruspex, vainglory, immanent, tarasque, aurochs, fraktur, photophore and 86 more...
-
-en
plural; cause to be; cause to have; made of; female; diminutive
-
Alternate
vixen, dulcet, iridescent, maiden, elysian, rhapsody, doll, ambrosia, azalea, daisy, holly, star and 8 more...
-
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
-
SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
Words. Just words.
Our chief weapons are words, that's all. Just words. Only words, not justly words, that is.
That is to say that there are only words in this list, not words that are just, although s...profligacy, monty, the arc of history, luddite, peremptory, brusque, languid, callipygian, perniciously, insidiousness, camelot, perforce and 189 more...
-
sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
-
Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for vixen.
mollusque Interesting comment among the definitions from American Heritage. Dec 24, 2009
andrew.simone I've known a few. Jan 9, 2007