shrill

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We all know that use of the word shrill is a sexist double standard applied against strong women.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. adjective High-pitched and piercing in tone or sound: the shrill wail of a siren.
  2. adjective Producing a sharp, high-pitched tone or sound: a shrill fife.
  3. adjective Sharp or keen to the senses; harshly vivid: shrill colors.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • And then her ladyship's clear, shrill, and now rather fretful voice was heard Here! —  Henrietta Temple A Love Story
  • The talk of a political drawing-room is stale and shrill, an old man in his seclusion is a useless encumbrance, an easy-going and conventional couple are living without plan or purpose--all the futility of these people is obvious to an onlooker from the moment when their sons and daughters break in upon them. —  The Craft of Fiction
  • And he pointed to the oaken stick with its red tip blazing against the white shimmer of sand behind it And the 40 and 72 and 91," cried the old gentleman, in a voice equally shrill--"why, that must mean the number of steps the pirate was counting when you heard him To be sure that's what they mean!" —  Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates
  • I think it's mean--mean--mean Her voice grew very shrill, and her face was red. —  Judy
  • So shrill was his clamour that no one heard the approach of the Empress. —  The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of Long Ago
 

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This word has been looked up 181 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

high-pitched ·  loud ·  muffle ·  plaintive ·  raucous ·  frantic ·  faint ·  insistent ·  hysterical ·  melodious ·  tremulous ·  monotonous

Used in the same contextWord Family

shrill:   Shrill ·  shrilled ·  shrilling
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

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/ʃrɪl/
by American Heritage

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