shrewish

English

From shrew +‎ -ish. Compare Middle English schrewis, shrewessh, shrewyssh (“wicked, malignant”).

shrewish (comparative more shrewish, superlative most shrewish)

Of or pertaining to a shrew (a nagging, ill-tempered woman).
- 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 60–61:
  “For my own part,” she rejoined, “I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her. Her face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at all handsome. Her nose wants character; there is nothing marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so fine, I never could perceive any thing extraordinary. They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether, there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.”
Bad-tempered; ill-natured; obstinate, as a shrew.

of or pertaining to a shrew (ill-tempered, nagging woman)

bad-tempered, ill-natured, obstinate — see bad-tempered,‎ ill-natured,‎ obstinate