Word.ws English Dictionary

termigant

termigant is the alternative spelling 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

Forms of termigant

pluraltermigants

Questions about termigant

What is termigant the alternative spelling of?
Termigant is the alternative spelling of termagant.

Words near termigant in the dictionary

  1. termgraphs
  2. termial
  3. termials
  4. termicin
  5. termicins
  6. termigant
  7. termigants
  8. terminability
  9. terminable
  10. terminableness
  11. terminal

Source and license

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