How to Curse in Shakespeare
Do you find yourself using curse words too often? Can't think of any alternatives? You're still stuck in Anglo-Saxon times. Be modern: Think Elizabethan English.
To create your own curses, memorize some choice terms from the following list, two adjectives and a noun minimum per curse, please. Shakespeare must have had great fun blending these words. You can use the curses as written in each line or mix them up. For example, try “Thou bawdy bat-fowled barnacle,” or to sound more modern, try “You surly sheep-biting puttock.”
Combine words from each of the three columns below.
Adjective |
Adjective |
Noun |
artless |
base-court |
apple-john |
bawdy |
bat-fowling |
baggage |
beslubbering |
beef-witted |
barnacle |
bootless |
beetle-headed |
bladder |
churlish |
boil-brained |
boar-pig |
clouted |
clay-brained |
bum-bailey |
cockered |
clapper-clawed |
bugbear |
craven |
common-kissing |
canker-blossom |
currish |
crook-pated |
clack-dish |
dankish |
dismal-dreaming |
clotpole |
errant |
dread-bolted |
death-token |
fawning |
earth-vexing |
dewberry |
fobbing |
elf-skinned |
flap-dragon |
frothy |
fen-sucked |
flirt-gill |
froward |
fat-kidneyed |
flax-wench |
gleeking |
flap-mouthed |
foot-licker |
goatish |
fly-bitten |
fustilarian |
gorbellied |
folly-fallen |
giglet |
infectious |
full-gorged |
haggard |
loggerheaded |
half-faced |
hedge-pig |
lumpish |
hasty-witted |
horn-beast |
mammering |
hedge-born |
hugger-mugger |
mangled |
hell-hated |
joithead |
mewling |
idle-headed |
lewdster |
paunchy |
ill-breeding |
lout |
pribbling |
ill-nurtured |
maggot-pie |
puking |
knotty-pated |
malt-worm |
puny |
milk-livered |
mammet |
rank |
onion-eyed |
minnow |
reeky |
plume-plucked |
miscreant |
roguish |
pottle-deep |
moldwarp |
ruttish |
pox-marked |
mumble-news |
saucy |
reeling-ripe |
nut-hook |
spleeny |
rough-hewn |
pigeon-egg |
spongy |
rude-growing |
pignut |
surly |
rump-fed |
pumpion |
tottering |
shard-borne |
puttock |
unmuzzled |
sheep-biting |
rascal |
vain |
spur-galled |
ratsbane |
venomed |
swag-bellied |
scut |
villainous |
tardy-gaited |
skainsmate |
warped |
tickle-brained |
strumpet |
wayward |
toad-spotted |
varlot |
whoreson |
wart-necked |
vassal |
weedy |
unchin-snouted |
whey-face |
yeasty |
weather-bitten |
wagtail |
Need more? Look up Shakespearean insults on the Internet. Or you can always read Shakespeare's plays and then make them up.
