sb. and a. Forms: 5–8 fixen (5 fixene), 6– vixen (7 vixinge, 8 vixin), 7–8 vixon. (repr. OE. *fyxen (= MHG. vühsinne, G. füchsin), fem. of fox FOX. Cf. OE. fyxen adj. ‘of a fox’ (= OHG. fuhsîn, MHG. vühsîn). The word is one of the few in which the southern v for f has definitely established itself.]
1. The female of the fox; a she-fox.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), vii. Þe fixene [v.r. fixen] of þe foxe bereth as longe, as þe bicche of þe wolfe bereth hir whelpes.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., x. (1628), 334. Fixen … is the name of a she-fox otherwise and more anciently foxin.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vixen or Fixen, a Fox’s Cub.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), II. 270. The vixen’s just now earthed, see here’s the Hole.
1796. Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), Vixen,… a she fox, who, when she has cubs, is remarkably fierce.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXII. 23. I must confess, I felt rather spoony upon that vixen.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, I. xxxiii. 286. A vixen was trapped just across the field yonder.
1880. Times, 2 Nov., 4/5. They are familiar as the craftiest old vixen with the country they have been born and bred in.
fig. 1705. Wycherley, in Pope’s Lett. (1735), I. 22. You may see a Pack of Spaniels, called Lovers, in hot Pursuit of a two-legg’d Vixen.
2. An ill-tempered quarrelsome woman; a shrew, a termagant.
1575. Gamm. Gurton, III. ii. That false fixen … that counts her selfe so honest.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 324. O when she’s angry, she is keene and shrewd, She was a vixen when she went to schoole.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. V. ii. 636. She is a foole, a nasty queane, a slut, a fixen, a scolde.
a. 1644. Quarles, Virgin Widow, V. i. She’s a pestilent vixen when she’s angry, and as proud as Lucifer.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. Prov. x. 18, Wks. 1687, I. 247. Those fiery Vixons, who … really do themselves embroil things, and raise miserable combustions in the world.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 8 (1726), 36. Since they [Oxford and Cambridge] have come to woman’s estate they have been a couple of the arrantest vixons.
1787. Minor, 68. Perverseness hurried him to marry a young vixin.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Contrast (1832), 103. Mrs. Betterworth was a vain, foolish vixen.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 565. ‘That may be very honourable in you,’ answered the pertinacious vixen, ‘but it will be very poor comfort to the Princess.’
1879. ‘E. Garrett’ (Mrs. Mayo), House by Works, xvi. 293. His unhappy secret marriage with the foreign vixen.
transf. 1861–2. G. H. K., in Vac. Tour. (1864), 136. There are the sixteen of them [sc. hinds] … quarrelling and fighting, rising perfectly upright on their hind legs,… and striking at each other with their sharp fore hoofs. What vixens!
† b. In the phrase to play the vixen. Obs.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, Wks. (Grosart), III. 161. A Gentlewoman; who, howsoeuer shee scolds and playes the vixen neuer so, wilbe borne with.
1597. Lyly, Wom. in Moon, I. i. (stage direction), She playes the vixen with euery thing about her.
† c. Applied to a child or a man. Obs. rare.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Fixen, a froward, peevish Child.
1702. S. Parker, trans. Cicero’s De Finibus, II. 151. He’s the veriest Vixin of a Stoick.
1731–8. Swift, Pol. Conversat., i. 95. Well, if that Child was mine, I’d whip it till the Blood came; Peace, you little Vixen!
3. attrib. (passing into adj.). a. Appositive with fox, = sense 1.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), vii. The fixene fox whelpeth vnder þe erthe.
1845. Youatt, Dog, iv. 102. The mouth of the earth in which a vixen fox—a fox with her young ones—has taken up her abode.
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 274. A little vixen fox jumping out among listless idlers of the pack.
b. Appositive, of persons, = VIXENISH a. 1.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), III. 80. O shame of soe greate a peere, imitatinge herin the vixinge calleaghs.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, i. The fury which the old vixen queen displayed.
c. Of looks, actions, etc., = VIXENISH a. 2.
1700. Congreve, Way of World, IV. 54. Pshaw, what a Vixon trick is this?
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxii. Disturbing us with his vixen brawls, and breaking God’s peace and the king’s.
1820. Keats, Cap & Bells, lxxix. She … Castled her King with such a vixen look, It bodes ill to his Majesty.
1850. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, x. Begone, for God’s sake, and hide your vixen face!
4. Comb., as vixen-faced, -visaged.
1836. Boston Herald, 20 Dec., 1/6. A Mrs. Vaughton was summoned by a vixen-visaged girl, named Susan Jones.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. II. Black Mousquetaire. Nervous folks still, when they come in their way, shun Old vixen-faced tramps of the Hebrew persuasion.
