shriek
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L327720 on Wikidata ↗verb
- emit high-pitched noise
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ʃɹiːk/
noun
Etymology: From obsolete shrick (1567), shreke, variants of earlier screak, skricke (before 1500), from Middle English scrycke, from a North Germanic/Scandinavian language (compare Swedish skrika, Danish skrige, Icelandic skríkja), from Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną, *skrik- (compare English screech). More at screech.
- A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
“Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.”
“Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek?”
- An exclamation mark.
verb
Etymology: From obsolete shrick (1567), shreke, variants of earlier screak, skricke (before 1500), from Middle English scrycke, from a North Germanic/Scandinavian language (compare Swedish skrika, Danish skrige, Icelandic skríkja), from Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną, *skrik- (compare English screech). More at screech.
- To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.
“Feebly ſhe ſhriekt, but ſo feebly indeed / That Britomart heard not the ſhrilling ſound.”
“It was the owl that shrieked.”
- To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
“The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.”
“She shrieked his name to the dark woods.”