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单词 vixen
释义

Definition of vixen in English:

vixen

noun ˈvɪks(ə)nˈvɪksən
  • 1A female fox.

    雌狐狸

    Example sentencesExamples
    • That is a fairly massive population change in the same habitat, but at the same time the proportion of vixens breeding each year has stayed the same, the number of cubs they are producing has stayed the same.
    • As the vixen's oestrus draws to a close, the dog fox stops guarding her and changes his behaviour dramatically, rapidly expanding into the neighbouring territories.
    • Now the vixen snapped at the dog's heels, so he turned on her and found himself harried again by her brother.
    • People living on the Moorside blamed the fox for the demise of all the feral cats in the area and other wildlife. Mrs Crabtree thinks that it must be a hungry vixen with a litter to feed.
    • Gibbons says the females, or vixens, have a disturbing habit of making bloodcurdling screams in winter.
    1. 1.1informal A spirited or quarrelsome woman.
      恶妇,泼妇,爱吵闹的女人
      an outrageous little shaven-headed vixen
      Example sentencesExamples
      • He uses examples from a biblical hall of fame of female villains and vixens - Delilah is one - to warn women not to engage in various forms of deceit or trickery to land, or keep, a man.
      Synonyms
      virago, harridan, shrew, dragon, termagant, cat, witch, hellcat, she-devil, tartar, martinet, spitfire, hag, gorgon, fury, ogress, harpy, nag
      informal bitch
      Scottish &amp Northern Irish informal targe
      archaic scold
      rare Xanthippe

Derivatives

  • vixenish

  • adjective ˈvɪks(ə)nɪʃˈvɪks(ə)nɪʃ
    • It's not strong enough to be strident nor tender enough to be vixenish.
  • vixenly

  • adjective

Origin

Late Middle English fixen, perhaps from the Old English adjective fyxen 'of a fox'. The v- is from the form of the word in southern English dialect.

  • fox from Old English:

    An Old English word that is related to German Fuchs. As well as featuring in folklore (see grapes) it is also a traditional quarry of hunters. Oscar Wilde described ‘The English country gentleman galloping after a fox—the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable’. Today the fox is as much an urban animal as a rural one, and its meaning has also shifted significantly. The US sense ‘an attractive woman’ is first recorded in the early 1960s, but the related adjective foxy was used before the First World War. This is an unusual development, in that fox is strictly masculine, the female being a vixen (Late Middle English). The two words are not as far apart as they might at first seem. Vixen was originally fixen, but in the past, as today, in the West Country an ‘f’ was often pronounced as a ‘v’, given vox and vixen and for some reason the West Country form stuck for the female. In the late 16th century vixen came to be a term for a bad-tempered woman (otherwise a shrew) so was not available for the new, sexual, sense. Foxed to describe a book with brownish spots on it dates from the mid 19th century and comes from the colour of the spots matching the reddish-brown of the animal.

Rhymes

Blixen, Nixon

Definition of vixen in US English:

vixen

nounˈviksənˈvɪksən
  • 1A female fox.

    雌狐狸

    Example sentencesExamples
    • People living on the Moorside blamed the fox for the demise of all the feral cats in the area and other wildlife. Mrs Crabtree thinks that it must be a hungry vixen with a litter to feed.
    • As the vixen's oestrus draws to a close, the dog fox stops guarding her and changes his behaviour dramatically, rapidly expanding into the neighbouring territories.
    • That is a fairly massive population change in the same habitat, but at the same time the proportion of vixens breeding each year has stayed the same, the number of cubs they are producing has stayed the same.
    • Gibbons says the females, or vixens, have a disturbing habit of making bloodcurdling screams in winter.
    • Now the vixen snapped at the dog's heels, so he turned on her and found himself harried again by her brother.
    1. 1.1informal A spiteful or quarrelsome woman.
      恶妇,泼妇,爱吵闹的女人
      an outrageous little shaven-headed vixen
      Example sentencesExamples
      • He uses examples from a biblical hall of fame of female villains and vixens - Delilah is one - to warn women not to engage in various forms of deceit or trickery to land, or keep, a man.
      Synonyms
      virago, harridan, shrew, dragon, termagant, cat, witch, hellcat, she-devil, tartar, martinet, spitfire, hag, gorgon, fury, ogress, harpy, nag

Origin

Late Middle English fixen, perhaps from the Old English adjective fyxen ‘of a fox’. The v- is from the form of the word in southern English dialect.

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更新时间:2024/9/21 13:58:06