Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Jump To:
  • Taming of the Shrew, The
    Taming of the Shrew, The
    noun
    a comedy (1594?) by Shakespeare.
  • The Taming of the Shrew
    The Taming of the Shrew
    A comedy by William Shakespeare. The “shrew” is Katherina, or Kate, a wildly moody woman. She meets her match in the spirited Petruchio, who marries her and behaves even more wildly than she, meanwhile treating her as if she were a kind and gentle lady. By the end of the play, she has been reformed, and she makes a memorable speech urging wives to submit to their husbands.

Taming of the Shrew, The

American  

noun

  1. a comedy (1594?) by Shakespeare.


The Taming of the Shrew Cultural  
  1. A comedy by William Shakespeare. The “shrew” is Katherina, or Kate, a wildly moody woman. She meets her match in the spirited Petruchio, who marries her and behaves even more wildly than she, meanwhile treating her as if she were a kind and gentle lady. By the end of the play, she has been reformed, and she makes a memorable speech urging wives to submit to their husbands.


Discover More

The musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate, by Cole Porter, is based on The Taming of the Shrew.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The Taming of the Shrew The Porters of Hellgate present a gender-swapped staging of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 12, 2019

Among the artworks, a photo of a William Shakespeare-inspired private collection picturing burlesque artist Janet Fischietto as Katherine, protagonist of Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming of the Shrew."

From Reuters Nov. 28, 2022

He went on to direct six of the BBC's 1980s Shakespeare productions, among them The Taming of the Shrew with John Cleese and Othello with Anthony Hopkins.

From BBC Nov. 27, 2019

The musical-within-a-musical, which revolved around a production of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," ran for 2½ years and more than a thousand performances.

From Los Angeles Times May 20, 2018

As Petruchio puts it in The Taming of the Shrew, “Where is the life that late I led?”

From The Guardian Aug. 13, 2017

Her Rosalind, her Country Wife, her Helena, her Railroad of Love, and above all, her Katharine in "The Taming of the Shrew!"

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908. by Various

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training