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Recent Examples of fishwife
In addition to Brecht’s typical didacticism, there is a haunting passage for a fishwife whose son died in one of Lucullus’s campaigns.
—
Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2020
An old fishwife sees a lobster try to escape and whacks it back in with her net.
—Casey Quackenbush / Hong Kong, Time, 12 July 2018
Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2020
An old fishwife sees a lobster try to escape and whacks it back in with her net.
—Casey Quackenbush / Hong Kong, Time, 12 July 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fishwife
Noun
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Given its plotting, Brooks’s movie could easily have made Iris into a harridan and Isaac into a sociopathic rogue.—
Graham Hillard,
The Washington Examiner,
15 Aug. 2025
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As written, and as played quite winningly by Siff, Silverman’s Tekla is neither a kitten nor a harridan.—
Jesse Green,
New York Times,
19 May 2025
Noun
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The godfather-like arctic shrew Mr. Big is back, as is Flash, the sloth, both ready to help at just the right moment.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
25 Nov. 2025
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Especially early on in the campaign, when I was being attacked as being angry, a shrew, demeaning my husband — all these labels were coming in on me that were essentially trying to rob me of that femininity.—
Janine Rubenstein,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Rather than returning to a patient Penelope, Rip has fled the termagant Dame Van Winkle.—
John Swansburg,
The Atlantic,
10 Oct. 2025
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But the film belongs to Moreno, clearly relishing the chance to play an unapologetic termagant.—
David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
13 Mar. 2022
Noun
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This was the case everywhere from her video vixen days—think: Heavy D and Big Daddy Kane music videos—to the red carpet, and more.—
Essence,
Essence,
15 Dec. 2025
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The model is a vintage vixen in an archival gold sequin Elie Saab gown.—
Brittany Talarico,
PEOPLE,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Skin is important here, not just its color but its texture as Josephine, for example, goes from elegant sophisticate to sweaty, sunburned, frizzy virago increasingly swollen with pregnancy and angry mosquito bites.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
25 Aug. 2023
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Meredith is a stereotypical virago updated with modern libertarian notions.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
5 July 2023
Noun
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Think a front desk hewn from Dionysos marble and sconces in the shape of harpies.—
Sam Cochran,
Architectural Digest,
11 Aug. 2025
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For those guys, mothers are either harpies or sirens—villains or traps.—
Helen Shaw,
The New Yorker,
2 May 2024
Cite this Entry
“Fishwife.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fishwife. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
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