Word.ws English Dictionary

termagants

termagants is the plural of termagant.

Meaning of termagant

Noun

termagant (plural termagants)

  1. (archaic) A brawling, boisterous, and turbulent person or thing.
    • […] I do not find hovv his E[xcellenc]y can be juſtly cenſured for favouring none but High-Church, High-flyers, Termagants, Laudiſts, Sacheverellians, Tip-top-gallon-men, Jacobites, Tantivyes, Anti-Hannoverians, Friends to Popery and the Pretender, and to Arbitrary Povver, […]1730, [Jonathan Swift], A Vindication of His Excellency the Lord C[artere]t, from the Charge of Favouring None but Tories, High-Churchmen and Jacobites. […], London: […] [William Bowyer] for T....
  2. (derogatory, specifically) A censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman; a scold, a shrew.
    • They [authors] would not suffer the stout'st Dame, / To swear by Hercules his Name, / Make feeble Ladies, in their Works, / To fight like Termagants and Turks; […]1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678...

See all 5 meanings of termagant

Questions about termagants

What is termagants the plural of?
Termagants is the plural of termagant.

Words near termagants in the dictionary

  1. termagancy
  2. termagant
  3. termagantish
  4. termagantism
  5. termagantly
  6. termagants
  7. termage
  8. Termakhivka
  9. Terman
  10. Termans
  11. termas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: termagants (page history and authors); termagant (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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