Shakespearean InsultsHere are Shakespearean Insults, thou mammering hedge-born gudgeons.

To construct a Shakespearean insult, combine one word from each of the three columns below, and preface it with "Thou":

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

artless base-court apple-john

bawdy bat-fowling baggage

beslubbering beef-witted barnacle

bootless beetle-headed bladder

churlish boil-brained boar-pig

cockered clapper-clawed bugbear

clouted clay-brained bum-bailey

craven common-kissing canker-blossom

currish crook-pated clack-dish

dankish dismal-dreaming clotpole

dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb

droning doghearted codpiece

errant dread-bolted death-token

fawning earth-vexing dewberry

fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon

froward fat-kidneyed flax-wench

frothy fen-sucked flirt-gill

gleeking flap-mouthed foot-licker

goatish fly-bitten fustilarian

gorbellied folly-fallen giglet

impertinent fool-born gudgeon

infectious full-gorged haggard

jarring guts-griping harpy

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

qualling motley-minded measle

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 puttock

tottering shard-borne pumpion

unmuzzled sheep-biting ratsbane

vain spur-galled scut

venomed swag-bellied skainsmate

villainous tardy-gaited strumpet

warped tickle-brained varlet

wayward toad-spotted vassal

weedy unchin-snouted whey-face

yeasty weather-bitten wagtail

Please use carefully, thou pribbling, clapper clawed harpy!

Insults from Shakespeare

Below are various insults from many plays written by Shakespeare. Your job is to try to figure out what each insult means and write your answer below the insult. Good luck!

The Two Gentlemen of Verona : Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!

As You Like It : Thou art like a toad; ugly and venemous.  

The Tempest : Thine forward voice, now, is to speak well of thine friend; thine backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.  

Measure For Measure :Thou art a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward.

 

All's Well That Ends Well : A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.

 

Cymbeline : Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile.

 

Henry IV Part 2 : You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe!

 

All's Well That Ends Well : Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.

 

The Winter's Tale: My wife's a hobby horse!

 

Troilus and Cressida : Thou art as loathsome as a toad.

 

Macbeth : Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy.

 

Henry IV Part 1 :Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!

 Henry IV Part 1 : Peace, ye fat guts!

 

Henry V : There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.

 

Richard III : Thou poisonous bunch-back'd toad!

 

Richard III : Thou art unfit for any place but hell.

 

Hamlet : Thou are pigeon-liver'd and lack gall.

 

All's Well That Ends Well : Your virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese.

 

Henry V : Thine face is not worth sunburning.

 

As You Like It : Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.

 

Henry IV Part : You are as a candle, the better burnt out.

 

Hamlet : If thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.

 

Measure For Measure : Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.

 

All's Well That Ends Well : A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.

   

All's Well That Ends Well : Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.

  

Henry IV part 1 : Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!