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

Or if Gein’s rumored girlfriend, Adeline Watkins, was the cruel, gore-obsessed vixen that Suzanna Son’s performance makes her out to be.

From Salon • Oct. 29, 2025

Kim Kardashian is a reality star, a tabloid sensation, a prison-reform advocate, a beauty and shapewear mogul and a former video vixen.

From New York Times • Sep. 21, 2023

Waters’ muse Divine, the drag performer who was transfixing on screen whether playing a criminal vixen or a put-upon suburban mom, passed away in 1988.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 16, 2023

Understandably, especially in an area that has robbed wildlife of places to den, nest and burrow, people are upset that a vixen mother with kits has been killed for attacking people.

From Washington Post • Apr. 11, 2022

Old Sela the vixen muttered her charms and spells in a singsong voice.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques