shriek

From obsolete shrick (1567), shreke, variants of earier screak, skricke (bef. 1500), from Middle English scrycke, from a Scandinavian language (compare Swedish skrika, Icelandic skríkja), from Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną, *skrik- (compare English screech). More at screech.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɹiːk/

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• Rhymes: -iːk

shriek (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.
   • Dryden

     Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.

   • 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5:

     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?

2. (Britain, slang) An exclamation mark.

shriek (third-person singular simple present shrieks, present participle shrieking, simple past and past participle shrieked or (obsolete) shright)

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.
   • Shakespeare

     It was the owl that shrieked.

   • Dryden

     At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.

2. (transitive) To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
   • Edmund Spenser

     The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.

   • Moore

     She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

• Ihrkes, hikers, shrike