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Synonyms for shrew

Grammar : Noun
Spell : shroo
Phonetic Transcription : ʃru

Top 10 synonyms for shrew
Other synonyms for the word shrew

Définition of shrew

Origin :
  • small insectivorous mammal, Old English screawa "shrew-mouse," unknown outside English, and "the absence of evidence for the word between the OE. period and the 16th c is remarkable" [OED]. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skraw-, from PIE *skreu- "to cut; cutting tool" (see shred (n.)), in reference to the shrew's pointed snout. Alternative Old English word for it was scirfemus, from sceorfan "to gnaw."
  • The meaning "peevish, malignant, clamorous, spiteful, vexatious, turbulent woman" [Johnson] is late 14c., from earlier sense of "spiteful person" (male or female), mid-13c., traditionally said to derive from some supposed malignant influence of the animal, which was once believed to have a venomous bite and was held in superstitious dread (cf. beshrew). Paired with sheep from 1560s as the contrasting types of wives.
  • noun mean lady
Example sentences :
  • But Mirandy was no shrew; she was simply troubled about many things.
  • Extract from : « Meadow Grass » by Alice Brown
  • The jade had to come to him, at last, completely subdued, as in the “Taming of the Shrew.”
  • Extract from : « Blood and Iron » by John Hubert Greusel
  • His wife is a shrew, a termagant, who embitters every hour of his existence.
  • Extract from : « The Lion's Skin » by Rafael Sabatini
  • Columbine snapped like the shrew she masked: "You little sneak!"
  • Extract from : « Nobody » by Louis Joseph Vance
  • The ii point is that, if a woman have a sharp nose, then most commenly she is a shrew.
  • Extract from : « Shakespeare Jest-Books; » by Unknown
  • Why of Shakspeare, in his Taming of the Shrew, and elsewhere?
  • Extract from : « Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History » by Thomas Carlyle
  • "When things don't suit me, I'm apt to say so; but I never scold," whined the shrew.
  • Extract from : « Down The River » by Oliver Optic
  • Shakespeare may have started it, with his silly Taming of the Shrew.
  • Extract from : « Free Air » by Sinclair Lewis
  • Why not rewrite 'The Taming of the Shrew' with a new background?
  • Extract from : « Charles Frohman: Manager and Man » by Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman
  • The better half of the knight was a shrew, and led him a wretched life.
  • Extract from : « John Deane of Nottingham » by W.H.G. Kingston
Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019