Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The common shrew of Europe; any small true shrew, like a mouse. See cuts under shrew.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A shrew; especially, the erd shrew.

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

  • noun A shrew, especially the erd shrew.

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

  • noun small mouselike mammal with a long snout; related to moles

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

shrew +‎ mouse

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Examples

  • The Indian hunters find their haunts by tracking their steps in the snow; for an Indian or Canadian hunter knows the track made by any bird or beast, from the deep broad print of the bear, to the tiny one of the little shrewmouse, which is the smallest four-footed beast in this or any other country.

    In the Forest Or, pictures of life and scenery in the woods of Canada Catharine Parr Strickland Traill 1850

  • Canadian hunter knows the track made by any bird or beast, from the deep broad print of the bear, to the tiny one of the little shrewmouse, which is the smallest four-footed beast in this or any other country.

    Lady Mary and her Nurse Catharine Parr Strickland Traill 1850

  • The bite of the shrewmouse is dangerous to horses and other draught animals as well; it is followed by boils.

    The History of Animals 2002

  • A shrewmouse broke cover in front of him, followed by its mate.

    "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character Douglas English

  • But the shrewmouse had crouched to dodge the shadow of a passing bird, and he saw him no more.

    "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character Douglas English

  • He saw his friend the shrewmouse scuffling with its mate; he saw the wood-mice nut-grubbing; he saw the night reunion of the stump-tailed voles; but the first of his own kind that he saw was mother.

    "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character Douglas English

  • ” At present, in relation to this demand that he should learn Latin declensions and conjugations, Tom was in a state of as blank unimaginativeness concerning the cause and tendency of his sufferings, as if he had been an innocent shrewmouse imprisoned in the split trunk of an ash-tree in order to cure lameness in cattle.

    I. Tom’s “First Half”. Book II—School-Time 1917

  • So is the resemblance between a mouse and a shrewmouse (Sorex), which belong to different orders; and the still closer resemblance, insisted on by Mr. Mivart, between the mouse and a small marsupial animal (Antechinus) of Australia.

    XIV. Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology-Embryology-Rudimentary Organs. Analogical Resemblances 1909

  • A robin trilled from a low rose-bush; two wrens searched diligently on a fallen tree for breakfast, quite unconcerned when I rested a moment beside them; and a shrewmouse slipped across the road followed directly by its mate.

    The Roadmender Michael Fairless 1885

  • The shrewmouse eyes me shudderingly, then flees; and, worse than that,

    Fly Leaves Charles Stuart Calverley 1857

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