shrew

1. 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.
2. A woman with a violent, scolding, or nagging temperament; a scold.

[Middle English shrewe, villian, from Old English scrēawa, shrewmouse.]

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.

noun

A person, traditionally a woman, who persistently nags or criticizes: fishwife, fury, harpy, scold, termagant, virago, vixen. Informal battle-ax. See praise/blame.

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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

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.

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

Italiano (Italian)
toporagno

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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