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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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Into this vacuum, a misogynistic sense of her as a harridan or a drug-using flake emerged.—
Daniel D'Addario,
Variety,
3 Feb. 2026
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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
Noun
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Because for the most part, Caroline comes off as a rigid uptight shrew.—
Lisa DePaulo,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Feb. 2026
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The tiny bodies of weasels, shrews and bats burn energy so fast that skipping even one meal can mean starvation.—
Leonie Baier,
The Conversation,
27 Feb. 2026
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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Robin Hood was portrayed as a fox, Little John was depicted as a bear, Friar Tuck as a badger, Prince John as a lion, the sheriff of Nottingham as a wolf and Maid Marian as a vixen.—
Angelique Jackson,
Variety,
6 Mar. 2026
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But through no fault of the actress, the film starts to sag as Erika morphs from intoxicating vixen to deceitfully manipulative monster.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
24 Jan. 2026
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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There was misogyny, of course: women are harpies or one of the boys.—
Akhil Sharma,
New Yorker,
28 Jan. 2026
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In the right-wing imagination, these women are acting like harpies — an epithet often seen online — when they’re supposed to be helpmeets.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
20 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fishwife.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fishwife. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
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