Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective High-pitched and piercing in tone or sound.
- adjective Producing a sharp, high-pitched tone or sound.
- adjective Sharp or keen to the senses; harshly vivid.
- intransitive verb To utter in a shrill manner; scream.
- intransitive verb To produce a shrill cry or sound.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To utter or emit a keen, piercing, high-pitched sound.
- To sound shrilly; be shrill.
- To cause to give out a shrill sound.
- To utter or produce with a shrill sound.
- Sharp and piercing in sound; high and keen (somewhat disagreeably so) in voice or note: the common use of the word.
- Emitting or capable of emitting a sharp, high, piercing sound.
- Piercing; sharp; affecting the senses sharply or keenly; bright.
- noun A keen or piercing sound.
- In a shrill manner; shrilly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Acute; sharp; piercing; having or emitting a sharp, piercing tone or sound; -- said of a sound, or of that which produces a sound.
- noun obsolete A shrill sound.
- intransitive verb To utter an acute, piercing sound; to sound with a sharp, shrill tone; to become shrill.
- transitive verb To utter or express in a shrill tone; to cause to make a shrill sound.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective High-pitched and piercing.
- adjective Sharp or keen to the senses.
- verb To make a shrill noise.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb utter a shrill cry
- adjective of colors that are bright and gaudy
- adjective being sharply insistent on being heard
- adjective having or emitting a high-pitched and sharp tone or tones
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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PAGE 134.l. 13. _ivory shrill_, the shrill sound of the ivory horn. ll.
Keats: Poems Published in 1820 John Keats 1808
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Harry Reid doesn't know what the term shrill means.
Latest Articles 2008
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He sites what he calls the shrill voices of liberal-left journalists, or 'laptop bombadiers' that became the champions of forceful western intervention.
Alan Miller: "Good Versus Evil": Radovan Karadzic and the West 2008
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On the instant they recognized the head, and on the instant rose their wild hearty laughter as they explained to one another in shrill falsetto voices.
Chapter 24 2010
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Once a voice of restraint and reason, Sullivan now specializes in shrill panic: mercurial ranting full nof operatic arguments, steeped in bad faith, aimed at people he once praised (including yours truly).
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And one "empirical" "measure" might be to track how much of a comeback the word shrill makes
"Two years of Pelosi gives a good idea of what four years of Hillary will be like." Ann Althouse 2006
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And one "empirical" "measure" might be to track how much of a comeback the word shrill makes, in what contexts (and not) and with regard to whom (and not).
"Two years of Pelosi gives a good idea of what four years of Hillary will be like." Ann Althouse 2006
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When I hear the word shrill, I think of some totally off the rails person half screaming about some nonsense.
Archive 2005-10-01 2005
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Per contra, there was Frank Barlow, whom we used to call "Crazy Barlow" because of his headlong rush at whatever object he had in view, and he could make the call shrill and thrill like a fife.
My Friends at Brook Farm John Van Der Zee Sears
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The lieutenant spoke in short shrill periods, chopping off the ends of his words as if with a hatchet.
Three Soldiers John Dos Passos 1933
bilby commented on the word shrill
They are all gone away,
The house is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.
Through broken walls and gray
The winds blow bleak and shrill:
They are all gone away.
- Edwin Arlington Robinson, 'The House On The Hill'.
November 16, 2008