shriek

CEFRB2

/ʃɹiːk/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To make a loud, high cry.

  2. 02

    noun

    A loud, high cry.

Examples

  • "Murder!", screamed the poor woman in a loud shriek.

  • She tickled her and she let out an involuntary shriek.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. An exclamation mark.

  2. 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.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

More examples

In context

  • The woman let out such a loud shriek that the house shook.

  • Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.

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

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

I heard the victim suddenly blank in terror as the attacker approached.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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.