Definition of "shriek"

shriek

/ʃɹiːk/

noun
plural shrieks
1. A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
  Quotations
  Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.
  1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  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?
  1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co.; republished as chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June,
2. (UK, slang) An exclamation mark.
verb
third-person singular simple present shrieks, present participle shrieking, simple past and past participle shrieked
1. (intransitive) 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.
  Quotations
  Feebly ſhe ſhriekt, but ſo feebly indeed / That Britomart heard not the ſhrilling ſound.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 4, page 95
  It was the owl that shrieked.
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]
  At this she shriek'd aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.
  1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  "[O]h, yes! the loon does shriek dreadfully - particularly when there's fine rain[.]"
  1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 286
2. (transitive) To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
  Quotations
  The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 33
  She shrieked his name to the dark woods.
  1817, Thomas Moore, Lalla-Rookh

Definition of "shriek"

shriek

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations