shriek

English

Alternative forms

• shreek (obsolete)

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɹiːk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːk

Noun

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.
   • 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, , →OCLC:

     Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.

   • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

     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. (UK, slang) An exclamation mark.

Derived terms

• shriek owl

Translations

Verb

shriek (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.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 95:

     Feebly ſhe ſhriekt, but ſo feebly indeed / That Britomart heard not the ſhrilling ſound.

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     It was the owl that shrieked.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     At this she shriek'd aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 286:

     "[O]h, yes! the loon does shriek dreadfully - particularly when there's fine rain[.]"

2. (transitive) To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 33:

     The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.

   • 1817, Thomas Moore, Lalla-Rookh:

     She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

Derived terms

• ashriek
• shrieking sixties

Translations

Anagrams

• Ihrkes, hikers, shrike