shrewish

adjective

shrew·​ish ˈshrü-ish 

 especially Southern  ˈsrü-

: ill-natured, intractable

shrewishly adverb

shrewishness noun

Examples of shrewish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful (1985), which marked Masterson’s feature directorial debut, Glynn got to portray Jessie Mae, the shrewish daughter-in-law of Mrs. Watts (Geraldine Page in an Oscar-winning performance). —Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 July 2023

Roth’s relationships with Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver) — the estate’s haughty, shrewish, horny heiress — and Maya Core (Quintessa Swindell), her estranged, mixed-race grandniece whom Roth is instructed to train and educate, are preposterously contrived. —Armond White, National Review, 24 May 2023

Pam depicts the character's childhood as generally miserable — her family was poor, her mother Shirley (Celia Weston, in an exquisitely shrewish turn) a drinker with a penchant for savage insults. —Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 4 Mar. 2022

Aw, Leslie Mann is a tired and semi-shrewish doctor. —Emma Specter, Vogue, 14 Jan. 2022

To integrate the Maleficents — the unruly women, the witches, the queers — into the state is to enroll them in the project of motherhood and parenting, and so tame their shrewish selves in the interest of raising the next generation. —Jeanna Kadlec, Longreads, 8 Oct. 2020

Here, things start off pretty much as the Bard intended — a beautiful young lady, Bianca, is courted from three directions, but can't be married off until her older, infamously shrewish sister, Katherine, finds a mate. —Tom Titus, latimes.com, 5 Apr. 2018

His wife, Karen, turned shrewish from years of his bad money management, works at their daughter’s private school, receiving a tuition abatement instead of pay. —Sam Sacks, WSJ, 4 Aug. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1565, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for shrewish

• bluish
• jewish