shrew
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(shrū) 
n.
n.
- Any of various small, chiefly insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, resembling a mouse but having a long pointed snout and small eyes and ears. Also called shrewmouse.
- A woman with a violent, scolding, or nagging temperament; a scold.
[Middle English shrewe, villian, from Old English scrēawa, shrewmouse.]
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Any of more than 300 species of small insectivores constituting the family Soricidae. About 40 of these species live in Africa, but shrews are also found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Shrews are absent from Australia and most of South America. They have tiny eyes and ears, a movable snout, and long, hook-tipped incisors. Typically 2 to 3 in. (6 to 8 cm) long, with a shorter tail, many shrews weigh only about 0.5 oz (14 g). Some are considered the smallest mammals, weighing only a few grams, with bodies less than 2 in. long. Most species live in ground litter, but some live in burrows or trees and a few are semiaquatic. Because they are so small, shrews have the highest metabolic rates of any mammals (with pulses as high as 800 beats per minute). They spend most of their time searching for food, as they can survive only a few hours without eating. Their normal prey is invertebrates such as worms, though some will eat other small animals as well. Some species have toxic saliva (painful to humans). Raptors and snakes eat shrews, but mammals avoid them. Tree shrews (family Tupaiidae) belong to a separate mammalian order (Scandentia) unrelated to true shrews.
For more information on shrew, visit Britannica.com.
An insectivorous mammal of the family Soricidae found in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The family includes 265 species grouped into three subfamilies, the red-toothed, white-toothed, and armored shrews. Shrews are small, savage animals with extremely sharp teeth. The tail is moderately long, the eyes are minute, the snout is sharp-pointed, and the ears are small (see illustration).
Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus).
Shrews are solitary individuals that establish distinct territories. Couples are found together only during mating. The female builds the nest, a hole in the ground lined with leaves and moss, where she deposits her litter of 5-10 young, born after a gestation period of between 2-3 weeks. The female mates at the age of 1 year; however, since the life-span of the shrew is only 15 months, the females always die during the fall after the litter is bom. See also Insectivora.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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shrew
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The shrew has a very bad reputation in English folklore. Its bite was believed to be poisonous to domestic animals, and if a shrew crawled over a cow, horse, sheep, or even human, that animal would suffer acute pains and swelling. In Britain, these beliefs go back at least to the 16th century and, indeed, Pliny includes them in his Natural History (AD 77). It was one of the superstitions reported by Gilbert White (The Natural History of Selborne (1776), letter 28), and see Opie and Tatem for further references. The reported cure and/or prevention was to bore a hole in an ash tree, or split a branch or trunk, catch a live shrew and imprison it in the hole or split and leave it to die and rot away. That tree, henceforth called a ‘shrew-ash’, would then have healing powers over shrew bites. According to N&Q (5s:9 (1878), 65), another method of making an ash effective against shrews was to bury a horseshoe at its roots. A further alternative was to enclose the shrew in clay, and hang it round the neck of the cow to protect it. It was also considered unlucky for a shrew to cross your path, and that shrews themselves could not cross roads or even tracks made by cart wheels without dropping dead on the spot. Some of these beliefs were also held about fieldmice.
Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.
- Opie and Tatem, 1989: 354-6
- H. S. Toms, ‘Shrew Folklore’, Sussex N&Q
2 (1929), 178-9 - Lean, 1903:
ii. 647-8
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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shrews
shrew, common name for the small, insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, related to the moles. Shrews include the smallest mammals; the smallest shrews are under 2 in. (5.1 cm) long, excluding the tail, and the largest are about 6 in. (15 cm) long. Light-boned and fragile, shrews have mouselike bodies and long, pointed snouts with tiny, sharp teeth. They are terrestrial and nocturnal, mostly living under vegetation; some occupy the burrows of other small animals. Their musky odor, produced by a pair of glands on their flanks, deters some of their potential predators.
Extremely active and nervous, they have a higher metabolic rate than any other animal. The heart of the masked shrew, Sorex cinereus, beats 800 times a minute, considerably faster than that of the hummingbird. Shrews must eat incessantly in order to stay alive; most will starve to death if deprived of food for half a day. They eat anything available, but prefer small animals; they are economically important as destroyers of insects and slugs that harm crops.
Shrews are easily startled and will jump, faint, or drop dead at a sudden noise. They are vicious fighters, killing and eating larger animals, such as mice, as well as other shrews. A belief that the shrew's bite is poisonous was dismissed for years as a folk tale, but has since been substantiated; the saliva of at least one species of shrew is lethal to mice and can cause considerable pain to humans. Shrews live about 15 months and reproduce rapidly, bearing up to four litters a year, with up to eight young in a litter.
Shrews are found in Europe, Asia, North and Central America, and N South America. There are more than 350 species, all rather similar, classified in about 30 genera. The subfamily of red-toothed shrews, with orange- or red-tipped teeth, includes both Old and New World species; the white-toothed shrews are confined to the Old World. A third subfamily, sometimes called African shrews, is found exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa.
The common shrews of the Northern Hemisphere belong to the red-toothed genus Sorex, with many species in North America and a few in Europe and Asia. The water shrew of Canada and N United States, Sorex palustris, is adapted to aquatic living and can actually walk on the surface of water for a short distance. There are other aquatic shrews, of several genera, in Europe and Asia.
The giant water shrew of Africa is not a true shrew but an insectivore related to the tenrec. The elephant, or jumping, shrews of Africa are insectivores of the family Macroscelididae; they resemble miniature kangaroos with trunks. The Oriental tree shrew is an insectivorelike primate. True shrews are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Soricomorpha, family Soricidae.
Word Tutor:
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shrew
IN BRIEF: A complaining, ill-tempered woman.
The main character in one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies starts out as a shrew.
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A small, 2 to 3 inches long, pointed-nosed, insectivorous mammal which has a moderately long tail and a very savage disposition. They are members of the family Soricidae and there are a large number of species including the common shrew (Sorex araneus).
- s. virus — a rhabdovirus with some antigenic relationship to rabies virus.
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categories related to 'shrew'
See crossword solutions for the clue Translations:
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Shrew
Dansk (Danish)
n. - rappenskralde, drage, spidsmus
Nederlands (Dutch)
spitsmuis, oude heks
Français (French)
n. - (Zool) musaraigne, mégère
Deutsch (German)
n. - Spitzmaus
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μέγαιρα, μαινάδα, (ζωολ.) μυγαλή
Português (Portuguese)
n. - megera (f), víbora (f) (fig.)
Русский (Russian)
сварливая женщина, землеройка
Español (Spanish)
n. - musaraña
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - argbigga, ragata, näbbmus
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
泼妇, 悍妇
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 潑婦, 悍婦
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 잔소리가 심한 여자, 사나운 여자, 뒤쥐
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - トガリネズミ, 口やかましい女
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) حيوان من آكله ألحشرات يشبه ألفأر, ألمرأة ألسليطه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מרשעת, כלבתא, חדף (דמוי עכבר)
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