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

Casting was geared to turn a prostitute into an angel, to repolish a yaking common scold, or curve hard lips into "the kindly weak smiles of a deserving claimant."

From Time Magazine Archive

In the title role, Diana Sands is earth-bound but never God-intoxicated, more of a common scold than an uncommon saint.

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

Catherine Cairns was arrested as a common scold, clapped in jail to mend her talk.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then I stopped, for Follet was hardly himself, nor did I like the look of myself as a common scold.

From The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by O'Brien, Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington)