shrew

English

Etymology

Old English scrēawa, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• enPR: shro͞o, IPA: /ʃɹuː/, X-SAMPA: /Sr\u:/
• Rhymes: -uː

Wikipedia

A shrew (def. 1)

Noun

shrew (plural shrews)

1. Any of numerous small mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.
2. An ill-tempered, nagging woman: a scold.

   You'd better not stay out late tonight — your mother is quite a shrew and you'll never hear the end of it.

Synonyms

• (mouselike mammal): ranny (obsolete)

Hyponyms

• (mouselike mammal): common shrew

Derived terms

terms derived from shrew (noun)

elephant shrew Etruscan shrew hardishrew jumping shrew

Nelson's small-eared shrew shrew-run shrewd shrewish tree shrew

Translations

mouselike animal

• Albanian: hundëgjati xhuxh (sq)
• Basque: satitsu (eu)
• Belarusian: буразубка (be) (burazúbka) f
• Breton: minoc'h korrik (br)
• Bulgarian: земеровка (bg) (zemeróvka) f
• Catalan: musaranya (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鼩鼱 (cmn) (qújīng), 尖鼠 (cmn) (jiānshǔ)

• Czech: rejsek (cs) m
• Danish: spidsmus (da) c
• Dutch: spitsmuis (nl) f
• Esperanto: soriko (eo)
• Estonian: karihiir (et)
• Faroese: trantmús (fo) f
• Finnish: päästäinen (fi)
• French: musaraigne (fr) f
• Galician: musaraño (gl) m, musgaño (gl) m
• German: Spitzmaus (de) f
• Greek: νανομυγαλίδα (el) (nanomigalída)
• Hungarian: cickány (hu)
• Icelandic: snjáldurmús (is) f, snjáldra (is) f
• Irish: dallóg fhraoigh (ga) f
• Italian: toporagno (it) m
• Japanese: トガリネズミ (ja) (togari-nezumi), 尖鼠 (ja)
• Korean: 뒤쥐 (ko) (dwijwi)
• Latgalian: ciersleits

• Latin: sorex (la) m
• Latvian: cirslis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: kirstukas (lt)
• Macedonian: ровка (mk) (róvka) f
• Maltese: ġurdiem ta' geddumu twil (mt) m
• Navajo: naʼatsʼǫǫsí binááʼ áłtsʼíísígíí
• Norwegian: spissmus (no) c
• Occitan: musaranha (oc) f
• Persian: موش شبگرد (fa) (muše šabgard)
• Polish: ryjówka (pl) f
• Portuguese: musaranho (pt) m
• Romanian: chițcan (ro) m
• Russian: землеройка (ru) (zemlerójka) f
• Sami: beaiskonjunni, vánddis
• Scottish Gaelic: dallag-an-fhraoich (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ровчица (sh) f, ровка (sh) f

  Roman: rovčica (sh) f, rovka (sh) f

• Slovene: rovka (sl) f
• Spanish: musaraña (es) f
• Swedish: näbbmus (sv) c
• Turkish: kir faresi (tr)
• Ukrainian: землерийка (uk) (zemlerýjka) f
• Welsh: llyg (cy) f
• West Frisian: pipermûs (fy) f

woman

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 潑婦 (cmn), 泼妇 (cmn) (pōfù)

• Czech: rachomejtle (cs)
• Danish: rappenskralde (da) c
• Finnish: äkäpussi (fi)

• French: furie (fr) f, mégère (fr) f
• German: Megäre (de) f
• Portuguese: megera (pt) f
• Russian: мегера (ru) (megéra) f, ведьма (ru) (véd’ma) f
• Spanish: arpía (es) f, bruja (es) f

Verb

shrew (third-person singular simple present shrews, present participle shrewing, simple past and past participle shrewed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To beshrew; to curse.
   • Chaucer

     I shrew myself.