termagant

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See also Termagant

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[edit] English

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[edit] Etymology

From Termagant.

[edit] Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈtɜːməɡənt/

[edit] Noun

termagant (plural termagants)

  1. A quarrelsome, scolding woman, especially one who is old and shrewd.
    • 1907, Isaac Flagg, Plato: the Apology and Crito, p. 196.:
      The name of Xanthippe, the wife of Socrates, has become proverbial for a termagant.
    • 1970, Robertson Davies, Fifth Business:
      Easier divorce, equal pay for equal work as between men and women, no discrimination between the sexes in employment – these were her causes, and in promoting them she was no comic-strip feminist termagant, but reasonable, logical, and untiring.

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Adjective

termagant (comparative more termagant, superlative most termagant)

  1. Quarrelsome and scolding or censorious; shrewish.
    • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:
      These bishops with their termagant wives throw the book at us and say believe because I demand belief and by God I will burn or hang and quarter you if you do not.
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