termagant
See also: Termagant
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Termagant.
Pronunciation
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Noun
termagant (plural termagants)
- A quarrelsome, scolding woman, especially one who is old and shrewish.
- 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2
- [...] Make feeble ladies, in their works, / To fight like termagants and Turks; [...]
- 1907, Isaac Flagg, Plato: the Apology and Crito, page 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.
- 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2
- (obsolete) A boisterous, brawling, turbulent person, whether male or female.
Synonyms
- (quarrelsome woman): See Thesaurus:shrew
Translations
a quarrelsome, scolding woman, especially old and shrewd
Adjective
termagant (comparative more termagant, superlative most termagant)
- 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.