Termagant

/ˈtɜːməɡ(ə)nt/ · noun

Meaning

(archaic) A brawling, boisterous, and turbulent person or thing..

Definitions by Sense

1. (archaic) A brawling, boisterous, and turbulent person or thing.
2. (specifically, derogatory) A censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman; a scold, a shrew.
3. (archaic) Having the temperament of a termagant (noun sense 1); bad-tempered, brawling, boisterous, turbulent.
4. (specifically, derogatory) Of a woman, her behaviour, etc.: censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome; scolding, shrewish.

Example Sentences

[…] I do not find hovv his E[xcellenc]y can be juſtly cenſured for favouring none but High-Church, High-flyers, Termagants, Laudiſts, Sacheverellians, Tip-top-gallon-men, Jacobites, Tantivyes, Anti-Hannoverians, Friends to Popery and the Pretender, and to Arbitrary Povver, […]

[T]wo raw lads from a certain great manufacturing town […] were in the act of seeking for the speediest exit from the gardens; rather choosing to resign their share of the dinner, than to abide the farther consequences that might follow from the displeasure of his Highland Termagaunt.

No person who had a natural interest in the Princess [Anne, Queen of Great Britain] could observe without uneasiness the strange infatuation which made her the slave of an imperious and reckless termagant [Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough].

Yonder is Sarah Marlborough's palace, just as it stood when that termagant occupied it.

'Mrs Kane has been filling us in on some background information on Owen.' The woman nodded, drumming her nicotined fingers. 'And I have been assuring her that the boys who arrive here thimbleriggers and termagants are the least of our worries. But we do not send them out that way. Do we, Brother?'

They [authors] would not suffer the stout'st Dame, / To swear by Hercules his Name, / Make feeble Ladies, in their Works, / To fight like Termagants and Turks; […]

This Girl is ſo exceſſively ill-bred, and ſuch an arrant Termagant, that I cou'd as ſoon fall in love vvith a Tigreſs. She hath a handſom Face, 'tis true, but in her Temper ſhe is a very Fury.

[T]he Widow Chupin […] poured forth a torrent of invective upon Gevrol and his agents, accusing them of persecuting her family […] At first the General tried to impose silence upon the terrible termagant; but he soon discovered that he was powerless; besides all his subordinates were laughing.

Synonyms for termagant

Antonyms for termagant

Related Words

Word Forms

• termagants
• termigant
• more termagant
• most termagant

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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