virago

virago, amazon, termagant, scold, shrew, vixen can all mean a woman of pugnacious temperament. Virago and amazon are often interchangeable; both tend to suggest physical vigor and size and often a masculine quality of mind or interests

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viragoes with red faces, thick necks, and tousled lint-colored hair screamed at all present to come and have a shy at the wooden figures— Lynd

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an amazon of a woman appeared suddenly in the doorway. She was well over six feet and well over two hundred pounds— Nancy Rutledge

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a few daring amazons of the horsey set— Dos Passos

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and both may apply to a woman engaged in typically masculine pursuits and especially fighting

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their leader was a fiery little Mexican virago scarcely out of her teens— Green Peyton

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Charles XII of Sweden had a bearded female grenadier in his army, a reputedly beautiful amazon— Joseph Mitchell

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the warrior maiden Marfisa, a true virago and amazon— R. A. Hall

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Distinctively virago can imply fierceness of temper and a domineering nature

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sometimes she abjures her femininity, she hesitates between chastity, homosexuality, and an aggressive virago attitude— Parshley

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certain viragoes, who made life a burden to the brothers— G. W. Johnson

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while amazon is more likely to suggest heroic qualities (as of dedication and competence)

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a magnificent, tousled, ragged amazon of a woman, on fire with the spirit of revolt against oppression— Linguaphone Mag.

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you can . . . while some intellectual amazon at your right tells you all about Péguy and Beethoven and Karl Marx, smile at your wife and be glad she has just the mind she has— Le Beau

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Termagant carries a strong implication of habitual disorderly turbulence, boisterousness, and uncontrollable temper

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afoulmouthed termagant, who screamed abuse and vile scurrility at her husband from morning till night— The Scotsman

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what she was trying to accomplish was to get rid of all his relatives .... She became a termagant—a confirmed scold— Howard

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Scold, shrew, and vixen designate women who habitually inflict their bad temper on others.

A scold indulges herself in vulgar, abusive, and often castigating speech

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really was a scold . . . had fought life single-handed . . . with all the ferocity of outraged sensibilities, and had come out of the fight scratched and disheveled, with few womanly graces— Stowe

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she laid on external things the blame of her mind's internal disorder, and thus became by degrees an accomplished scold— Peacock

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while a shrew possesses a bitter tongue and a nagging disposition

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a shrew, a woman with the temper of a fiend— Forester

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and a vixen, a fiery temperament and often a tendency to snappish asperity

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a woman tropical, intense . . . she blended in a like degree the vixen and the devotee— Whittier

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