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
The 2025 list of extinctions includes a bird, a shrew and a species of snail, among others.
—
Doyle Rice, USA Today, 18 Oct. 2025
The shrew is one of these mammals, according to the study.
—Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 27 Aug. 2025
The elephant shrew genus Macroscelides was the sole exception, shifting to omnivory after adopting myrmecophagy during the Eocene.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, ArsTechnica, 20 Aug. 2025
In animal studies, TDN helped obese mice and musk shrews lose weight and become more responsive to insulin.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shrew
Doyle Rice, USA Today, 18 Oct. 2025
The shrew is one of these mammals, according to the study.
—Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 27 Aug. 2025
The elephant shrew genus Macroscelides was the sole exception, shifting to omnivory after adopting myrmecophagy during the Eocene.
—Rupendra Brahambhatt, ArsTechnica, 20 Aug. 2025
In animal studies, TDN helped obese mice and musk shrews lose weight and become more responsive to insulin.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shrew
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shrew
Noun
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Into this vacuum, a misogynistic sense of her as a harridan or a drug-using flake emerged.—
Daniel D'Addario,
Variety,
3 Feb. 2026
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Given its plotting, Brooks’s movie could easily have made Iris into a harridan and Isaac into a sociopathic rogue.—
Graham Hillard,
The Washington Examiner,
15 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Rather than returning to a patient Penelope, Rip has fled the termagant Dame Van Winkle.—
John Swansburg,
The Atlantic,
10 Oct. 2025
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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
Noun
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Robin Hood was portrayed as a fox, Little John was depicted as a bear, Friar Tuck as a badger, Prince John as a lion, the sheriff of Nottingham as a wolf and Maid Marian as a vixen.—
Angelique Jackson,
Variety,
6 Mar. 2026
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But through no fault of the actress, the film starts to sag as Erika morphs from intoxicating vixen to deceitfully manipulative monster.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
24 Jan. 2026
Noun
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There was misogyny, of course: women are harpies or one of the boys.—
Akhil Sharma,
New Yorker,
28 Jan. 2026
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In the right-wing imagination, these women are acting like harpies — an epithet often seen online — when they’re supposed to be helpmeets.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
20 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The critic Nathan Scott McNamara, writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books, has aptly compared NDiaye’s writing to that of Shirley Jackson, and NDiaye herself cites Joyce Carol Oates as a strong influence.—
Kristen Roupenian,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
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And yet, when HB 1098 was introduced in 2023, critics dismissed it as a solution in search of a problem.—
Lisa Frizell,
Denver Post,
6 Apr. 2026
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
-
Meredith is a stereotypical virago updated with modern libertarian notions.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
5 July 2023
Noun
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Camilla’s been getting the brunt of Sarah’s fury.—
Lizzie Lanuza,
StyleCaster,
5 Apr. 2026
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Time and again, the Venezuelan opposition has converted popular fury into political momentum, only to watch Chavismo regroup, survive, and consolidate.—
Boris Muñoz,
Time,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Shrew.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shrew. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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