shrew

/ʃɹuː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

dialectal/ʃɹɪu̯/

shrew noun: any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

shrew (plural shrews)

Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.

Synonyms:

ranny, soricid
Certain other small mammals that resemble true shrews.
(derogatory) An ill-tempered, nagging woman: a scold.
- The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife—shrill, vehement, and fluent. 'Rogue,' 'old miser,' 'old sneak,' and a great many worse names, she called him.1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
- His wife was a shrew with warts on her face and she spoke to him sharply when others were present, but Simcha did not complain.1959, Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Verb

shrew (third-person singular simple present shrews, present participle shrewing, simple past and past participle shrewed)

(obsolete, transitive) To beshrew; to curse.
- I shrew myself.1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story via the 'title' parameter)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne]...

shrew meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Assamese

shrew in Tamil

mouselike animal: மூஞ்சூறு mūñcūṟu

shrew in Malayalam

ശുണ്ഠിക്കാരത്തി, കർക്കശക്കാരി, ഒരു തരം ചുണ്ടെലി, വായാടി

shrew in Assamese

mouselike animal: চিকা sika

More languagesFewer languages

shrew in Nepali: छुचुन्द्रो chucundro
shrew in Tagalog: musaranya
shrew in Arabic: زَبَابَة zabāba
shrew in Indonesian: celurut
shrew in Persian: موش شبگرد muše šabgard
shrew in Thai: หนูผี nǔu-pǐi
shrew in Vietnamese: chuột chù
shrew in Myanmar: ကြွက်စုတ် krwakcut

Examples of shrew in a sentence

But it's not a shrew and it doesn't really look like an elephant.
However, Gray Foxes use this gait very often, as do Mule Deer and several shrew species.
A few species such as bat, shrew, striped hamster and muskrat are found only in North Korea.

All 15 example sentences with shrew

Synonyms of shrew

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of shrew

Forms of shrew

Noun
plural	shrews
alternative form	shrow
Verb
third-person singular present	shrews
present participle	shrewing
past participle	shrewed
past	shrewed

Plural of shrew: shrews

Origin of shrew

From Middle English schrewe, from Old English sċrēawa (“shrew”), from Proto-Germanic *skrawwaz (“thin; meagre; frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut; shorten; skimp”). Cognates include Old High German scrawaz (“dwarf”), Norwegian skrugg (“dwarf”).

From Middle English schrewen (“to make evil; curse”), from Middle English schrewe, schrowe, screwe (“wicked; evil; an evil person”).

Words formed from shrew

Phrases with shrew

Words that rhyme with shrew

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shrew

What does shrew mean?: Shrew means any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.
What is shrew in Tamil?: Shrew in Tamil is மூஞ்சூறு (mūñcūṟu). See Shrew meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is shrew?: Shrew can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce shrew?: Shrew is pronounced /ʃɹuː/.
What is the plural of shrew?: The plural of shrew is shrews.

Words near shrew in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrew (page history and authors); shrew (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shrew (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shrew.wav.

Cite this entry: “shrew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shrew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.