shrew.
Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.
Meaning & usage
Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.
Certain other small mammals that resemble true shrews.
An ill-tempered, nagging woman: a scold.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English schrewe, from Old English sċrēawa (“shrew”), from Proto-Germanic *skrawwaz (“thin; meagre; frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut; shorten; skimp”). Cognates include Old High German scrawaz (“dwarf”), Norwegian skrugg (“dwarf”).
To beshrew; to curse.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English schrewen (“to make evil; curse”), from Middle English schrewe, schrowe, screwe (“wicked; evil; an evil person”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.