shrew
n. countablen. a very small, sharp-toothed animal that looks like a mouse. It is also a very old-fashioned word for a mean or unpleasant woman.
n. a small, insectivorous mammal of the family Soricidae, characterized by a pointed snout and sharp teeth. In a literary or archaic context, it refers to a sharp-tongued or unpleasant woman.
The shrew is one of the smallest mammals in the world.
While hiking through the dense underbrush, the naturalist spotted a tiny shrew darting between the roots.
The poet used the image of a shrew to represent the protagonist's mother, capturing the character's sharp wit and difficult personality through a metaphor that feels dated to modern readers.
From Middle English schrewe, from Old English sċrēawa (“shrew”), from Proto-Germanic skrawwaz (“thin; meagre; frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut; shorten; skimp”). Cognates include Old High German scrawaz (“dwarf”), Norwegian skrugg (“dwarf”).
From Middle English schrewen (“to make evil; curse”), from Middle English schrewe, schrowe, screwe (“wicked; evil; an evil person”), from Old English *scrēawa (“wicked person”, literally “biter”). Perhaps ultimately from the same word as Etymology 1 above.