shrew Meaning, Definition & Usage

OE. shrewe, schrewe. Cf. Shrewd.

See Shrew, a.

Originally, a brawling, turbulent, vexatious person of either sex, but now restricted in use to females; a brawler; a scold.
A man . . . grudgeth that shrews [i. e., bad men] have prosperity, or else that good men have adversity. Chaucer.

A man had got a shrew to his wife, and there could be no quiet in the house for her. L'Estrange.
AS. screáwa; -- so called because supposed to be venomous. (Zoöl.) Any small insectivore of the genus Sorex and several allied genera of the family Sorecidæ. In form and color they resemble mice, but they have a longer and more pointed nose. Some of them are the smallest of all mammals. ✍ The common European species are the house shrew (Crocidura araneus), and the erd shrew (Sorex vulgaris) (see under Erd.). In the United States several species of Sorex and Blarina are common, as the broadnosed shrew (S. platyrhinus), Cooper's shrew (S. Cooperi), and the short-tailed, or mole, shrew (Blarina brevicauda). Th American water, or marsh, shrew (Neosorex palustris), with fringed feet, is less common. The common European water shrews are Crossopus fodiens, and the oared shrew (see under Oared).

See Shrew, a., and cf. Beshrew.