Word.ws English Dictionary

shrow

/ʃɹəʊ/

shrow is the alternative form of shrew.

Meaning of shrew

Noun

shrew (plural shrews)

  1. Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae.
    Synonyms:
    ranny, soricid
  2. Certain other small mammals that resemble true shrews.
  3. (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

See all 4 meanings of shrew

Verb

IPA/ʃɹaʊ/

shrow (third-person singular simple present shrows, present participle shrowing, simple past and past participle shrowed)

  1. (obsolete) To hide or cover; to shroud.
    • Dense fogs followed; and early one morning, the city was shrowed in almost Egyptian darkness.c. 1830, The Parterre; Or, Universal Story-teller
    • Neither is there any doubt, but that many Rulers over Cities and countreys, are over ruled by their wives, but as these women knowe howe in time and place, to bee obedient to their husbands, so there are some such restive jades, that they will not at any time be commaunded, and by their...1913, The Nineteenth Century and After - Volume 73, page 1281

Forms of shrow

Noun
pluralshrows
Verb
third-person singular presentshrows
present participleshrowing
past participleshrowed
pastshrowed

Origin of shrow

See shrew.

Back-formation from shroud.

Questions about shrow

What does shrow mean?
Shrow means to hide or cover; to shroud.
What is shrow the alternative form of?
Shrow is the alternative form of shrew.
What part of speech is shrow?
Shrow is a verb.
How do you pronounce shrow?
Shrow is pronounced /ʃɹəʊ/.
What is the past tense of shrow?
The past tense of shrow is shrowed.

Words near shrow in the dictionary

  1. shroves
  2. Shrovetide
  3. Shrovetide football
  4. Shrovetides
  5. shroving
  6. shrow
  7. shrowd
  8. shrowds
  9. shrowed
  10. shrowing
  11. shrows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrow (page history and authors); shrew (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shrow.wav.

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