vixen

American  

[vik-suhn] / ˈvɪk sən /

noun

1. a female fox.

2. an ill-tempered or quarrelsome woman.

   Synonyms:

   termagant, harpy, virago, scold, shrew

3. a woman considered to be sexually attractive.

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vixen British  

/ ˈvɪksən /

noun

1. a female fox

2. a quarrelsome or spiteful woman

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Other Word Forms

• vixenish adjective
• vixenishly adverb
• vixenishness noun
• vixenly adjective

Etymology

Origin of vixen

First recorded in 1375–1425; southern late Middle English, replacing earlier northern Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe, feminine of fox fox (compare fyxen “pertaining to a fox,” Old High German fuhsin “vixen”)

Explanation

A vixen is a female fox. Or it can be a woman with a temper. If you really want to insult a woman who is a little short on patience, call her a vixen. She won’t like it. Somewhere along the line the word vixen came to mean a hot-headed or ill-tempered person. Nowadays vixen is often used as a derisive term for an unpleasant or mean woman. Vixen also gets used frequently in descriptions of female film characters. In this way it doesn’t really mean that the character is bad tempered. As slang, to call someone a vixen means that she's sexy and flirtatious, a label she may or may not like.

Example Sentences

Keeping a mother vixen in confinement for a recommended six to 12 months would be hell on her, and the people who were bitten would still have to undergo rabies shots.

From Washington Post • Apr. 11, 2022

Ms Buck said: "They're very old for this time of year so we think it's possibly a young vixen who was having child control problems."

From BBC • Mar. 20, 2022

In the Netflix version, Vicious is turned into a petulant man-child with daddy issues and Julia is the vixen trapped in a loveless marriage.

From New York Times • Nov. 23, 2021

Biologists said a vixen named Tule, who was tending to at least two pups in the remote Caribou Wilderness of Lassen National Forest, was at particular risk from the raging Dixie fire.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 15, 2021

A fox barked nearby—the vixen, I supposed—warning the kits I was coming.

From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn