Word Study
shredder |
shredding |
shreddy |
shredless |
shreveport |
Shrew
| shrew mole
| shrew-sized
| shrewd
| shrewdly
| shrewdness
WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
ROGET THESAURUS
Shrew
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun Shrew has 2 senses
- shrew(n = noun.person) termagant - a scolding nagging bad-tempered woman; Array is a kind of disagreeable woman, unpleasant woman
- shrew(n = noun.animal) shrewmouse - small mouselike mammal with a long snout; related to moles; Array is a kind of insectivore
has particulars: virago, yenta
is a member of family soricidae, soricidae
has particulars: common shrew, sorex araneus, masked shrew, sorex cinereus, blarina brevicauda, short-tailed shrew, water shrew, cryptotis parva, least shrew
CIDE DICTIONARY
Shrew, a. [OE. shrewe, schrewe. Cf. Shrewd.].
Wicked; malicious. Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
- Originally, a brawling, turbulent, vexatious person of either sex, but now restricted in use to females; a brawler; a scold. [1913 Webster]"A man . . . grudgeth that shrews [i. e., bad men] have prosperity, or else that good men have adversity." [1913 Webster]"A man had got a shrew to his wife, and there could be no quiet in the house for her." [1913 Webster]
- Any small insectivore of the genus
Sorex and several allied genera of the familySorecidæ . In form and color they resemble mice, but they have a longer and more pointed nose. Some of them are the smallest of all mammals. [1913 Webster]" The common European species are the house shrew (Crocidura araneus ), and the erd shrew (Sorex vulgaris ) (see underErd .). In the United States several species ofSorex andBlarina are common, as the broadnosed shrew (S. platyrhinus ), Cooper's shrew (S. Cooperi ), and the short-tailed, or mole, shrew (Blarina brevicauda ). Th American water, or marsh, shrew (Neosorex palustris ), with fringed feet, is less common. The common European water shrews areCrossopus fodiens , and the oared shrew (see underOared )." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
Shrew, n.
1 any small usu. insect-eating mouselike mammal of the family Soricidae, with a long pointed snout.
2 a bad-tempered or scolding woman.
1 any small usu. insect-eating mouselike mammal of the family Soricidae, with a long pointed snout.
2 a bad-tempered or scolding woman.
Derivative
shrewish adj. (in sense 2). shrewishly adv. shrewishness n.
Etymology
OE screawa, scr{aelig}wa shrew-mouse: cf. OHG scrawaz dwarf, MHG schrawaz etc. devil
THESAURUS
Shrew
Chiroptera, Lagomorpha, Primates, Rodentia, Xanthippe, amazon, banshee, battle-ax, beldam, bitch, cat, common scold, crone, dragon, fishwife, fury, hag, harpy, harridan, nag, ogress, scold, she-devil, she-wolf, spitfire, termagant, tigress, virago, vixen, witchROGET THESAURUS
Shrew
Irascibility
N irascibility, irascibleness, temper, crossness, susceptibility, procacity, petulance, irritability, tartness, acerbity, protervity, pugnacity, excitability, bad temper, fiery temper, crooked temper, irritable, temper, genus irritabile, hot blood, ill humor, asperity, churlishness, huff, a word and a blow, Sir Fretful Plagiary, brabbler, Tartar, shrew, vixen, virago, termagant, dragon, scold, Xantippe, porcupine, spitfire, fire eater, fury, irascible, bad-tempered, ill-tempered, irritable, susceptible, excitable, thin-skinned, fretful, fidgety, on the fret, hasty, overhasty, quick, warm, hot, testy, touchy, techy, tetchy, like touchwood, like tinder, huffy, pettish, petulant, waspish, snappish, peppery, fiery, passionate, choleric, shrewish, sudden and quick in quarrel, querulous, captious, moodish, quarrelsome, contentious, disputatious, pugnacious, cantankerous, exceptious, restiff, churlish, cross, cross as crabs, cross as two sticks, cross as a cat, cross as a dog, cross as the tongs, fractious, peevish, acari=atre, in a bad temper, sulky, angry, resentful, resentive, vindictive, Int, pish!, a vieux comptes nouvelles disputes, quamvis tegatur proditur vultu furor, vino tortus et ira.Detractor
N detractor, reprover, censor, censurer, cynic, critic, caviler, carper, word-catcher, frondeur, barracker, defamer, backbiter, slanderer, Sir Benjamin Backbite, lampooner, satirist, traducer, libeler, calumniator, dawplucker, Thersites, Zoilus, good-natured friend, reviler, vituperator, castigator, shrew, muckraker, disapprover, laudator temporis acti, black-mouthed, abusive.
For further exploring for "Shrew" in Webster Dictionary Online