Termagant

Quick meaning: Termagant is a noun meaning (specifically, derogatory) A censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman; a scold, a shrew.

Meaning

(specifically, derogatory) A censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman; a scold, a shrew.

More Meanings

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

Example Sentences

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

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.

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].

Word Forms

• termagants
• termigant

Synonyms for termagant

Depending on context, synonyms include bitch, brim, brimstone, cat, crow, dragon.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include shrew, termigant, scold, harridan, catamaran, tauntress.

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