shriek

Meanings

Noun

• A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
• An exclamation mark.

Verb

• 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.
• To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.

Origin

• 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.