Word.ws English Dictionary

shrewishness

shrewishness noun: the quality of being shrewish.

Noun

shrewishness (uncountable)

  1. The quality of being shrewish.
    • The weather had broken, and the sharp wind was almost autumnal in its shrewishness. Mary shivered a little, and buttoned her black sports coat closer. The wind through the trees made a mournful noise, like some great giant sighing.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 148

Origin of shrewishness

From shrewish + -ness.

Questions about shrewishness

What does shrewishness mean?
Shrewishness means the quality of being shrewish.
What part of speech is shrewishness?
Shrewishness is a noun.

Words near shrewishness in the dictionary

  1. shrewdy
  2. shrewed
  3. shrewing
  4. shrewish
  5. shrewishly
  6. shrewishness
  7. Shrewley
  8. shrewlike
  9. shrewly
  10. shrewmice
  11. shrewmouse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrewishness (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.

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