I know none more covetous shrews than ye are, when ye have a benefice.—Foxe, Book of Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe.
| Shrewd, | } |
| Shrewdness. |
The weakness of the world’s moral indignation against evil causes a multitude of words which once conveyed intensest moral reprobation gradually to convey none at all, or it may be even praise. ‘Shrewd’ and ‘shrewdness’ must be numbered among these.
An ant is a wise creature for itself; but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden.—Bacon, Essay 23.
Is he shrewd and unjust in his dealings with others?—South, Sermons, 1737, vol. vi. p. 106.
Forsothe the erthe is corupt before God, and is fulfilled with shrewdness [iniquitate, Vulg.].—Gen. vi. 12. Wiclif.
The prophete saith: Flee schrewednesse [declinet a malo, Vulg.], and doo goodnesse; seeke pees, and folwe it.—Chaucer, The Tale of Melibeus (Morris, iii. p. 187).
Siege. A ‘siege’ is now the sitting down of an army before a fortified place with the purpose of taking it; and has no other meaning but this. It had once the double meaning, abstract and concrete, of the French ‘siège,’ a seat.
Whanne mannus sone schal come in his majeste and alle hise aungels with hym, thanne he schal sitte on the sege of his majeste, and alle folkis schulen be gaderid bifor hym.—Matt. xxv. 31. Wiclif.
A stately siege of soveraine majestye;