Word.ws English Dictionary

shrewly

shrewly adverb: in a shrewish manner, shrewdly, sharply.

Adverb

shrewly (comparative more shrewly, superlative most shrewly)

  1. (archaic, rare) In a shrewish manner, shrewdly, sharply.
    • The Society have, it seems, invented a cunning machine, shrewly yclept a Torpedo, […]1897, Washington Irving, Works: Life of George Washington, page 343

Forms of shrewly

comparativemore shrewly
superlativemost shrewly

Origin of shrewly

From Middle English shreuli, schrewelich, equivalent to shrew + -ly.

Questions about shrewly

What does shrewly mean?
Shrewly means in a shrewish manner, shrewdly, sharply.
What part of speech is shrewly?
Shrewly is an adverb.

Words near shrewly in the dictionary

  1. shrewish
  2. shrewishly
  3. shrewishness
  4. Shrewley
  5. shrewlike
  6. shrewly
  7. shrewmice
  8. shrewmouse
  9. shrews
  10. Shrewsbury
  11. Shrewsbury cake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrewly (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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