Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A female fox.
  • noun A woman regarded as quarrelsome or ill-tempered.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A she-fox.
  • noun Hence A turbulent, quarrelsome woman; a scold; a termagant: formerly used occasionally of a man.
  • Vixenish.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. A female fox.
  • noun A cross, ill-tempered person; -- formerly used of either sex, now only of a woman.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A female fox.
  • noun A malicious, quarrelsome or temperamental woman.
  • noun colloquial A racy or salacious woman.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a malicious woman with a fierce temper
  • noun a female fox

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From dialectal alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English fixen ("of a fox"), fyxen. Voiced v- is from Southern dialect. Compare German Füchsin. See also fox.

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Examples

  • There's nothing that says exhausted, cranky and nauseous like vixen, is there?

    When Bad Things Happen to Bad Writers Roger Sutton 2006

  • When a vixen is voted off, Rose will brandish a gun and a rose, scream, “You’re Gonna Diiiiiie!” and then shoot her.

    BWE HALFTIME REPORT: Top 11 Reality Dating Shows Featuring Rock Stars We’d Like To See | Best Week Ever 2007

  • “I am a vixen, a female fox,” she had replied with a quiver of her nostrils, and Claudia had immediately recognized that a vixen was a very grand and glorious thing to be.

    The Night Of the Solstice L.J. SMITH 2010

  • Having spent some time recently as a cancer victim, I can say right here and right now that the word vixen was never in my vocabulary.

    When Bad Things Happen to Bad Writers Roger Sutton 2006

  • In the book a speaker writes about her, that "Comet of stillness, princess of what is over/high note held without trembling without voice without sound/aura of complete darkness keeper of the kept secrets" The vixen is a sentient creature endowed with both a totally modern mind as well as deep old foresty knowledge, and so is the consciousness of the poems themselves.

    Book Patrol 2010

  • In the book a speaker writes about her, that "Comet of stillness, princess of what is over/high note held without trembling without voice without sound/aura of complete darkness keeper of the kept secrets" The vixen is a sentient creature endowed with both a totally modern mind as well as deep old foresty knowledge, and so is the consciousness of the poems themselves.

    Book Patrol 2010

  • The female fox is called a vixen, but if a human is called a vixen, the connotation is an attractive but cunning woman!

    Summit Daily News - Top Stories 2009

  • The female, called a vixen, prepares a den before she bears the young.

    Knox 2009

  • In particular, one of the alleged spies, 28-year-old Anna Chapman, is getting a lot of attention because of her "vixen" looks and lingerie shots on Facebook.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Web 2.0 2010

  • (Don't forget, promo code "vixen" gets you 5\% off, which is a wicked good deal!)

    Secrets of a Blue-Eyed Vixen 2008

Comments

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  • I've known a few.

    January 10, 2007

  • Interesting comment among the definitions from American Heritage.

    December 24, 2009