shrewish

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From shrew +‎ -ish. Compare Middle English schrewis, shrewessh, shrewyssh (wicked, malignant).

Adjective[edit]

shrewish (comparative more shrewish, superlative most shrewish)

  1. Of or pertaining to a shrew (a nagging, ill-tempered woman).
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Pride and Prejudice: [], volume III, London: [] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, [], →OCLC, pages 60–61:
      “For my own part,” she rejoined, “I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her. Her face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at all handsome. Her nose wants character; there is nothing marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so fine, I never could perceive any thing extraordinary. They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether, there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.”
  2. Bad-tempered; ill-natured; obstinate, as a shrew.

Derived terms[edit]