[13], Beginning in the mid-13th century, following on the belief that the animals could exert a wicked influence on humans exposed to them, the term was applied metaphorically to a person of either sex thought to have a similar disposition, but by the 14th century, it was applied to women alone. Dez: Well I haven't done any Later... Mrs. Coates: Kyle, where's your homework? In critical-theoretic analysis, the figure represents insubordinate female behaviour in a marital system of polarised gender roles, that is male-dominated in a moral hierarchy. shrew definition in English dictionary, shrew meaning, synonyms, see also 'shrew mole',elephant shrew',otter shrew',tree shrew'. 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. Test your knowledge - and maybe learn something along the way. In 10 Things I Hate About You, a 1999 American teen romantic comedy, in which high school students play matchmaker with a "shrew" and her cantankerous male counterpart, while themes of family reconciliation and teen sex-related psychological angst are explored. "[16] (Cf. 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. Shrew definition, a woman of violent temper and speech; termagant. It dates more gender-neutrally to Middle English, ca. This word has the dual meaning of a small mouse-like animal and a shrill, difficult woman. Scold, in its heyday, was not particularly limited to literary or theatrical contexts. Harridan definition, a scolding, vicious woman; hag; shrew. [10][11], Shrew derives from Middle English shrewe for 'evil or scolding person', used since at least the 11th century,[10] in turn from Old English scrēawa or scrǣwa, 'shrew' (animal);[5][10] cognates in other Germanic languages have divergent meanings, including 'fox', 'dwarf', 'old man', and 'devil'. French Translation of “shrew” | The official Collins English-French Dictionary online. Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shrew"): virago (a noisy or scolding or domineering woman). shrew | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples 3 letter words CAT - HAG 4 letter words FURY - GOON - HOOD - JADE - ROMP - WOLF Shrew definition is - any of a family (Soricidae) of small chiefly nocturnal insectivores related to the moles and distinguished by a long pointed snout, very small eyes, and short velvety fur. Delivered to your inbox! Synonyms for shrew include fury, harpy, harridan, termagant, virago, vixen, dragon, scold, spitfire and cat. My manager is a shrew who goes out of her way to make my workday unpleasant. Find more similar words at wordhippo.com! [8][better source needed] In William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina "has a scolding, shrewish tongue," thus prompting Petruchio to try and tame her. "sheep". Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). termagant: 1 n a scolding, nagging, bad-tempered woman Synonyms: shrew Types: virago a noisy or scolding or domineering woman yenta (Yiddish) a vulgar shrew; a shallow coarse termagant Type of: disagreeable woman , unpleasant woman a woman who is an unpleasant person "Shrew," for a shrill, nagging, overbearing woman, has been used, fairly or not, to describe behavior that is traditionally associated ONLY with women. [2] Many of these elements, including denial of food (through trickery) and psychological manipulation (without animal abuse), were reused by William Shakespeare in his play The Taming of the Shrew, which closes with the reformed shrew giving a monologue on why wives should always obey their husbands. 8 synonyms of shrew from the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, plus 16 related words, definitions, and antonyms. He described the use of the word in reference to males as "ancient",[15] but also quoted Shakespeare using it to satirise a man by likening him to the shrewish woman central to his play: "By this reckoning he is more shrew than she. 3 letter words BAT - CAT - HAG - NAG - PIG - RAT 4 letter words FURY - HARE - JADE 5 letter words Definition of Shrew. a woman with an unpleasant personality. Shrew: a bad-tempered scolding woman. Dez: O its just further maths Kyle: So we dont have any homework for Mrs. Coates? The shrew – an unpleasant, ill-tempered woman characterised by scolding, nagging, and aggression[1] – is a comedic, stock character in literature and folklore, both Western and Eastern. [5] The term shrew is still used to describe the stock character in fiction and folk storytelling. ness n. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Slippery Words Quiz—Changing with the Times. [25][26] The skalds, like the bards, were feared for their panegyric satire, and this may explain the connection to verbal abusiveness.[26]. poet. They included the imposition of the ducking stool, pillory, jougs, a shrew's fiddle, or a scold's bridle. A daily challenge for crossword fanatics. [23][24] It has taken on the meaning of scolding, nagging, bossy, belligerent woman, especially an older one, and is not tied to literary context. modern use toward men of other female-targeted slurs like bitch. Shrew explanation. The theme is illustrated in Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew. Sense 2 We found 11 answers for “Shrew” . [2] Arising in folklore, in which community story-telling can have functions of moral censorship or suasion, it has served to affirm traditional values and moral authority regarding polarised gender roles, and to address social unease about female behavior in marriage. shrew Use the noun shrew — at your own risk — to refer to a woman who is argumentative, nagging, and ill tempered. This page shows answers to the clue Shrew, followed by ten definitions like “A scolding nagging bad-tempered woman”, “Small mouselike mammal with a long snout” and “(archetype) In the English language”.A synonym for Shrew is vixen. Characteristics. The noun shrew can also refer to a mouse-like animal with tiny eyes, a … Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Jump to navigation Jump to search. [2], The taming process begins immediately after the marriage, and does not last long, sometimes only the wedding night itself. [27] To the extent the noun form retains any currency, some dictionaries observe that it can (unusually) be applied to males,[26] a recent re-development. Such characters usually wore long gowns that gave them a feminine appearance in an era when female characters were played by men or boys, and were dressed similarly. ... shrew - a scolding nagging bad-tempered woman. yenta ((Yiddish) a vulgar shrew; a shallow coarse termagant). [26] In Johnson's time, the word formed part of a legal term, common scold which referred to rude and brawling women see below. Define Shrew by Webster's Dictionary, WordNet Lexical Database, Dictionary of Computing, Legal Dictionary, Medical Dictionary, Dream Dictionary. Another word for shrew. screawa (Old English (ca. shrew (shro͞o) n. 1. The Taming of the Shrew has itself led to various modern, loose adaptations to current societal views in differing Western and Eastern industrialised societies, while retaining the stock character and the underlying theme of consequences of female disagreeableness, but often giving the "shrew" much more agency, and portraying some "shrewish" traits in a positive light, blending with the stock character of the virago. The similar term harridan, widely also considered a synonym of shrew,[1] originated as a late-17th-century slang term for 'aging prostitute' (probably from 16th-century French haridelle, 'old horse', in metaphor a 'gaunt, ill-favoured woman'). Jumble was created in 1954 - below, you will find the most unscrambled letters for each descramble word game that others have solved or decoded to make the word shrew. [10] Historically, the animals called shrews were superstitiously feared, falsely believed to have a venomous bite and to behave aggressively and with cruelty,[12] leading to the now-obsolete word beshrew, 'to curse or invoke evil upon'. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021. 1150–1200, as scold or scald (unrelated to the 'burn' sense, from Old French), and probably derives from Old Norse skáld, 'a skald', i.e. A woman who is a bitch. Synonyms (Other Words) for Shrew & Antonyms (Opposite Meaning) for Shrew. Elements of the shrew-taming plot are still used today,[2] though with less patriarchal messages since the rise of feminism. Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for SHREWISH WOMAN [virago] We hope that the following list of synonyms for the word virago will help you to finish your crossword today. [2] The theme is illustrated in Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew. Kyle: Hey Dez what's that Maths homework you're doing? Johnson's 18th-century definition was: "A clamourous, rude, mean, low, foul-mouthed woman", suggesting a level of vulgarity and a class distinction from the more generalised shrew, but this nuance has been lost. Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for SHREW We hope that the following list of synonyms for the word shrew will help you to finish your crossword today. woman (Middle English (1100-1500)) 7. woman noun. [2] Capitulation by the "shrew" happens suddenly, she transforms into a "model" wife, and the couple live happily ever after.[2]. period and the 16th c is remarkable" [OED]. 2. [2] She may have a more docile but unavailable younger sister, for contrast, and/or an even more shrewish mother. Also called shrewmouse. Some of these include: Frivolous Wife, a 2008 South Korean film, in which the "shrew" attempts to change herself to become better accepted by her inlaws; ShakespeaRe-Told: The Taming of the Shrew, a 2005 British film, in which a politician seeks to reform her public relations image as an abrasive woman by getting married, but finds this challenging; Deliver Us from Eva, a 2003 American romantic comedy film, in which the boyfriends of three young sisters whose relationships are being micro-managed by an elder, troublesome fourth sister, hire a pickup artist to seduce this "shrew" and get them out of their lives, but he falls in love with her despite her ways not changing permanently. [2], This basic plot structure typically involves a series of recurring motifs:[2] A man, often young and penniless, marries a woman with shrewish or other negative qualities (laziness, etc. ), for her dowry or other reasons unrelated to love, despite another trying to talk him out of it. We've arranged the synonyms in length order so that they are easier to find. This overall plot structure was retained in various works of silent-era and post-Second World War cinema.[2]. Find another word for shrew. In an uncommon gender-role reversal, the 1980 Italian film Il Bisbetico Domato (The Taming of the Scoundrel) features a macho and grumpy but successful male farmer, known for antisocially driving women away, who is eventually won over by an earnest young lady, aided by the farmer's housekeeper who has long been trying to find a bride for the loner. In Elizabethan England, shrew was widely used to refer to women and wives who did not fit into the social role that was expected of them. [2] It involves denial of intimacy by the husband to the bride, and often also has several other features, including coercion (e.g., by violence, sleep deprivation, and/or starvation) to induce submission, and psychological manipulation (e.g. Find more ways to say shrew, along with related words, antonyms and example phrases at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus. [10], By the middle 16th century, the opposing extremes of wifely personality traits were contrasted as "shrew" vs. It was remade as a 2009 TV series, in which the "shrew" character is redeveloped into a serious-attitude activist. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skraw-, from PIE *skreu-"to cut; cutting tool" (see shred (n.)), in reference to the shrew's pointed snout. See more. [1], Another word with essentially the same meaning, and applying only to women since around 1300, is the noun scold (later replaced with scolder, as scold became a verb toward the late 14th century). Did you know my uncle faked his death to escape marriage to an abusive shrew? The largest species is the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) of tropical Asia, which is about 15 cm (6 in) long and weighs around 100 g (4 oz) several are very small, notably the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), which at about 3.5 cm (1.4 in) and 1.8 g (0.063 oz) is the smallest known living terrestrial mammal. The shrew – an unpleasant, ill-tempered woman characterised by scolding, nagging, and aggression – is a comedic, stock character in literature and folklore, both Western and Eastern. Translation Context Spell check Synonyms Conjugation. We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website, including to provide targeted advertising and track usage. The name was genericised into a term referring to male characters with ranting, bullying personalities. 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