vixen

noun

vix·​en ˈvik-sən 

1

: a female fox

2

: a shrewish, ill-tempered woman

When Arabella called her a treacherous vixen and a heartless, profligate hussy, she spoke out freely, and said that she wasn't going to be abused.

—Anthony Trollope

3

informal : a sexually attractive woman

In this spy spoof, our hero, aided by a sexy vixen, … saves the world from a power-mad despot …

—Steven Rebello

vixenish

ˈvik-s(ə-)nish 

adjective

Did you know?

Vixens and Foxes

Vixen literally refers to a female fox, but it has two very distinctive extended meanings: “a shrew” and “a sexy woman.” How is it that the word took such semantically divergent paths?

The “combative, bad-tempered woman” sense has a very long history in our language, going back as far as the 16th century and extending well into the 20th. It may be found in Shakespeare and Swift as well as in latter-day descriptions of mothers-in-law and the names of gun boats. By mid-century, however, vixen begins to be used of glamorous and attractive women. Perhaps its application to female characters who combined combative and seductive qualities led to the word's reinterpretation. Or perhaps it was influenced by fox, another term for an attractive young woman that made its appearance in English around this time.

Synonyms

• battle-ax
• battle-axe
• dragon lady
• fury
• harpy
• harridan
• shrew
• termagant
• virago

Examples of vixen in a Sentence

why anyone puts up with that vixen's sharp tongue is beyond me

Recent Examples on the Web

Red foxes are a common sight at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia—in 2016, one particularly personable vixen was even deemed the official mascot of the graveyard. —Katy Kelleher, Outside Online, 27 June 2024

As the story unfolds, Grande's vixen, who has prepared a love potion with a bubblegum pink hue worthy of Wicked's Glinda for her city's mayor, pursues young official Max Starling (Penn Badgley). —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 June 2024

One sis happens to be annoyingly sweet and clueless, the other a wild vixen with an out-of-control libido. —Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 8 May 2024

There are smooth-talking Nazi officers whose charm masks their menace and a bombshell vixen expected to outsmart — and potentially seduce — the worst of them, the sadistic yet cunning Heinrich Luhr (Teuton action star Til Schweiger). —Peter Debruge, Variety, 16 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English (southern dialect) *vixen, alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe, feminine of fox

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

vixen

noun

vix·​en ˈvik-sən 

: a female fox