First Known Use: before 12th century
Dictionary
1shrew
noun \ˈshrü, especially Southern ˈsrü\
: a small animal that looks like a mouse with a long, pointed nose
: an unpleasant, bad-tempered woman
Full Definition of SHREW
1
: any of a family (Soricidae) of small chiefly nocturnal insectivores related to the moles and distinguished by a long pointed snout, very small eyes, and short velvety fur
2
: an ill-tempered scolding woman
— shrew·like \-ˌlīk\ adjective
See shrew defined for English-language learners
See shrew defined for kids
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Origin of SHREW
Middle English shrewe evil or scolding person, from Old English scrēawa shrew (animal)
Related to SHREW
- Synonyms
- battle-ax (or battle-axe), dragon lady, fury, harpy, harridan, termagant, virago, vixen
Rhymes with SHREW
blue, boo, brew, chew, clew, clue, coo, coup, crew, cue, dew, do, doux, due, ewe, few, flu, flue, fou, glue, gnu, goo, hew, hue, Jew, Koo, lieu, loo, mew, moo, moue, mu, new, nu, ooh, pew, phew, pooh, q, queue, roux, rue, screw, shoe, shoo, Sioux, skew, slew, slough, slue, smew, sou, sous, spew, sprue, stew, strew, sue, Sue, thew, through, to, too, true, two, u, view, whew, who, woo, xu, yew, you, zoo
2shrew
transitive verb
SHREW Defined for Kids
shrew
noun \ˈshrü\
Definition of SHREW for Kids
1
: a small mouselike animal with a long pointed snout and tiny eyes that lives mostly on insects and worms
2
: an unpleasant woman with a bad temper
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