# shrew
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: shro͞o, shrū, IPA: /ʃɹuː/, /ʃɹɪu̯/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -uː

### Etymology 1

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”).

#### Noun

shrew (plural shrews)
* Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae (order Eulipotyphla).
* Certain other small mammals that resemble true shrews.
* (derogatory) An ill-tempered, nagging woman: a scold.
** 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife—shrill, vehement, and fluent. 'Rogue,' 'old miser,' 'old sneak,' and a great many worse names, she called him.
** 1959, Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz:His wife was a shrew with warts on her face and she spoke to him sharply when others were present, but Simcha did not complain.

##### Usage notes

The best-known use of the meaning 'ill-tempered woman' is probably from The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare.

##### Alternative forms

* shrow (obsolete)

##### Synonyms

* (mouselike mammal): ranny (obsolete)
* (nagging woman): See Thesaurus:shrew

##### Hyponyms

* (mouselike mammal): common shrew

##### Derived terms

* common shrew (Sorex araneus in family Soricidae)
* elephant shrew (order Macroscelidea)
* Elliot's short-tailed shrew
* erd shrew
* Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus in family Soricidae)
* hardishrew (Sorex araneus in family Soricidae)
* hero shrew
* Himalayan shrew
* house shrew
* jumping shrew (order Macroscelidea)
* marsupial shrew
* McCarthy's shrew
* mole shrew
* musk shrew
* Nelson's small-eared shrew (Cryptotis nelsoni, family Soricidae)
* northern tree shrew
* ornate shrew
* otter shrew (subfamily Potamogalinae in family Tenrecidae in order Afrosoricida)
* Pearson's long-clawed shrew
* red-toothed shrew
* Sado shrew
* Saint Lawrence Island shrew
* shrewd
* shrew-faced squirrel
* shrewish
* shrew mole
* shrewmouse (Sorex araneus in family Soricidae)
* shrew opossum, shrew possum (order Paucituberculata)
* shrew-run
* Sierra shrew
* slender shrew
* Tate's shrew rat
* tree shrew, tree-shrew, treeshrew (families Tupaiidae and Ptilocercidae in order Scandentia)
* true shrew (Soricidae)
* tule shrew
* water shrew
* West Indies shrew (genus †Nesophontes in family Solenodontidae)

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle English schrewen (“to make evil; curse”), from Middle English schrewe, schrowe, screwe (“wicked; evil; an evil person”), from Old English *scrēawa (“wicked person”, literally “biter”). Perhaps ultimately from the same word as Etymology 1 above.

#### Verb

shrew (third-person singular simple present shrews, present participle shrewing, simple past and past participle shrewed)
* (obsolete, transitive) To beshrew; to curse.
** 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:I shrew myself.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

### Anagrams

* Rhews, wersh