A person who frequently or habitually causes public disturbances or breaks the peace by brawling or quarreling.
Scolding, which was an indictable offense at Common Law but is obsolete today, did not involve a single incident but rather the repeated creation of discord.
COMMON SCOLD, Crim. law, communes rixatrix. A woman, who, in consequence of
her boisterous, disorderly and quarrelsome tongue, is a public nuisance to
the neighborhood.
2. Such a woman may be indicted, and on conviction, punished. At common
law, the punishment was by being placed in a certain engine of correction
called the trebucket or cocking stool.
3. This punishment has been abolished in Pennsylvania, where the
offence may be punished by fine and imprisonment. 12 Serg. & Rawle, 220;
vide 1 Russ. on Cr. 802 Hawk. B. 2, c. 25, s. 59 1 T. R. 756 4 Rogers' Rec.
90; Roscoe on Cr. Ev. 665.