as in harridan
a bad-tempered scolding woman
Rip Van Winkle went off into the mountains to escape his wife, a shrew who made his life miserable
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shrew
To photograph the shrews, the team had to work quickly.
—
Sara Hashemi, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Jan. 2025
By Issy Ronald |, CNN Momentarily pausing after eating some mealworms, an elusive shrew’s long snout pointed skywards, unaware of the historic portrait that had just been captured.
—Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2025
The Mount Lyell shrew was captured in a photo for the first time in California.
—Kiki Intarasuwan, CBS News, 28 Jan. 2025
Cats can kill between 6.3 billion and 22.3 billion mammals a year, mainly mice, voles, shrews, squirrels and rabbits, an article from Catster reported.
—Kristen Waggoner, Newsweek, 21 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shrew
Sara Hashemi, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Jan. 2025
By Issy Ronald |, CNN Momentarily pausing after eating some mealworms, an elusive shrew’s long snout pointed skywards, unaware of the historic portrait that had just been captured.
—Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2025
The Mount Lyell shrew was captured in a photo for the first time in California.
—Kiki Intarasuwan, CBS News, 28 Jan. 2025
Cats can kill between 6.3 billion and 22.3 billion mammals a year, mainly mice, voles, shrews, squirrels and rabbits, an article from Catster reported.
—Kristen Waggoner, Newsweek, 21 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shrew
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shrew
Noun
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The subtext throughout is that Tendler is a harridan, a domineering scold.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
16 Aug. 2024
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And Day, with a face of expressive misery and the energy of an imploding firecracker, portrays her as a shrewd fusion of harridan and victim.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
16 Aug. 2024
Noun
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But the film belongs to Moreno, clearly relishing the chance to play an unapologetic termagant.—
David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
13 Mar. 2022
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Rita may be a bossy termagant, but her adoring Beppe appears to love being whacked around from time to time, so what’s the harm?—
John Von Rhein,
chicagotribune.com,
15 Apr. 2018
Noun
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Have no fear, as the love affair between Elvis impersonator Sailor Ripley and vivacious vixen Lula Fortune will also be showing at Prince Charles Cinema in London on Saturday, February 8 and Monday, February 10.—
Harrison Richlin,
IndieWire,
2 Feb. 2025
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With his entourage of ballers and video vixens, his retinue of security, his talent for curation, Puff was the ringmaster of relevancy, the pied piper of fun and the force at the very center of cultural power.—
Amy DuBois Barnett,
The Hollywood Reporter,
4 Oct. 2024
Noun
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For those guys, mothers are either harpies or sirens—villains or traps.—
Helen Shaw,
The New Yorker,
2 May 2024
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This is her name for the seventh circle of hell from Dante’s Inferno, where the souls of those who’ve committed suicide become trees, and harpies peck at them for all eternity.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
21 Nov. 2023
Noun
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In recent years, DAFs have received a bad rap, with critics citing that people only use them for tax benefits.—
Matt Nash,
Forbes,
6 Mar. 2025
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Never mind that critics had never gone mad for the show.—
Marley Marius,
Vogue,
6 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Skin is important here, not just its color but its texture as Josephine, for example, goes from elegant sophisticate to sweaty, sunburned, frizzy virago increasingly swollen with pregnancy and angry mosquito bites.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
25 Aug. 2023
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Meredith is a stereotypical virago updated with modern libertarian notions.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
5 July 2023
Noun
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The firings sparked an increase in posts to a Reddit channel for federal government workers, which urged those who were frustrated and recently laid off to refocus their fury and consider running for public office instead.—
Samantha-Jo Roth,
Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government,
3 Mar. 2025
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Then, in September, 1885, in Rock Springs, the fury spilled over.—
Michael Luo,
The New Yorker,
3 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shrew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shrew. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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