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shrieve. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
shrieve, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
shrieve in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
shrieve you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
See sheriff.
Noun
shrieve (plural shrieves)
- Obsolete form of sheriff.
1591, unknown author, The Troublesome Reign of King John:Please it your Majesty, here is the shrieve of Northamptonshire, with certain persons that of late committed a riot, and have appealed to your Majesty beseeching your Highness for special cause to hear them.
c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):I know him: he was a botcher's 'prentice in Paris, from whence he was whipped for getting the shrieve's fool with child: a dumb innocent that could not say him nay.
Usage notes
- Also appears capitalised, particularly when used as a title.
Etymology 2
See shrive.
Verb
shrieve (third-person singular simple present shrieves, present participle shrieving, simple past shrieved, past participle shrieved or shriven)
- Obsolete form of shrive.
1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto:[…] he ordered [father Jerome] to be called and shrieve the prisoner.
1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto First. The Castle.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: J Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, ; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XXII, page 44:The jealous churl hath deeply swore,
That, if again he venture o’er,
He shall shrieve penitent no more.
- (obsolete) To question.
1596, Edmund Spenser, “The Faerie Queene”, in Henry John Todd, editor, The Works of Edmund Spenser, published 1869, page 243:But afterwards she gan him soft to shrieve,
And wooe with fair intreatie, to disclose
Which of the nymphes his heart so sore did mieve: