the film portrays the figure skater's mother as a strict and controlling harridan
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And Day, with a face of expressive misery and the energy of an imploding firecracker, portrays her as a shrewd fusion of harridan and victim.—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 Aug. 2024 The subtext throughout is that Tendler is a harridan, a domineering scold.—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 16 Aug. 2024 He was still steeled, still prepared for some harridan.—Graham Swift, The Atlantic, 3 Aug. 2024 Richard Millet became a kind of referendum on what wasn’t yet termed cancel culture, with Ernaux denounced as a harridan intent on enforcing politically correct censorship at the expense of a man’s career.—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2022 Throughout her tenure as House speaker, Pelosi has been painted by Trump supporters as an unhinged harridan: crazy, conniving and hungry for power.—Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2022 Allen’s account paints Mia Farrow as an abusive, baby-crazed harridan who beat and brainwashed her many children.—Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 25 Mar. 2020 Still, for a generation brought up to smile in the face of almost any affront or risk being tarred as a harridan, older women’s indignation seems ripe for reassessment.—New York Times, 30 July 2019 Surely Socrates, married to that many-years-younger harridan Xanthippe, would be in line for a Nobel.—Joseph Epstein, WSJ, 11 May 2018
Word History
Etymology
perhaps modification of French haridelle old horse, gaunt woman
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