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

"He is not to be a common scold," he wrote in an opinion reprinted recently in the Atlantic.

From Time Magazine Archive

But, as always, Khrushchev on tour turned out to be part frolicking peasant, part common scold.

From Time Magazine Archive

He envisions himself as a kind of public conscience to the profession, and succeeds at least in being its common scold.

From Time Magazine Archive

With a loud roar of rage, the felicity of phrasing and invaluable candor of a common scold, he immediately started to set things to rights.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mrs. Royall's tongue at last became so unendurable that she was formally indicted by the Grand Jury as a common scold, and was tried in the Circuit Court before Judge Cranch.

From Perley's Reminiscences, v. 1-2 of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis by Poore, Benjamin Perley