shriek
/ʃɹiːk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.76 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
Example Sentences
- "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?"
- "Feebly ſhe ſhriekt, but ſo feebly indeed / That Britomart heard not the ſhrilling ſound."
- "It was the owl that shrieked."
- "At this she shriek'd aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief."
- ""[O]h, yes! the loon does shriek dreadfully - particularly when there's fine rain[.]""
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: scrycke, -, *skrīkijaną
Usage
- British usage
- Slang
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb