common scold

American  

noun

1. (in early common law) a habitually rude and brawling woman whose conduct was subject to punishment as a public nuisance.

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Etymology

Origin of common scold

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

In the colonial United States and Britain, women who talked too much and started fights were labelled “common scolds” – recommended punishments included making them wear gags or repeatedly dunking them in water to simulate drowning.

From The Guardian

It is thus that I would see America, not as schoolmistress or common scold to the nations, but as chosen leader by example, rather than by authority.

From Project Gutenberg

Ducking-stool, a stool or chair in which common scolds were formerly tied and plunged into water.

From Project Gutenberg

Eight years later the Grand Jury of Burke County, of the same state, presented Mary Cammell as a “common scold and disturber of the peacable inhabitants of the County.”

From Project Gutenberg

"Don't go at him like a common scold," Orr engagingly pleaded at one stage of the game.

From Project Gutenberg