shrill

[ shril ]
See synonyms for: shrillshrilledshrillingshrills on Thesaurus.com

adjective,shrill·er, shrill·est.
  1. high-pitched and piercing in sound quality: a shrill cry.

  2. producing such a sound.

  1. full of or characterized by such a sound: shrill music.

  2. betraying some strong emotion or attitude in an exaggerated amount, as antagonism or defensiveness.

  3. marked by great intensity; keen: the shrill, incandescent light of the exploding bomb.

verb (used with or without object)
  1. to cry shrilly.

noun
  1. a shrill sound.

adverb
  1. in a shrill manner; shrilly.

Origin of shrill

1
1300–50; Middle English shrille (adj., v.); akin to Old English scrallettan to sound loudly; cognate with German schrill (adj.), schrillen (v.); compare Old Norse skrīll rabble

Other words from shrill

  • shrillness, noun
  • shrilly, adverb
  • outshrill, verb (used with object)
  • un·shrill, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use shrill in a sentence

  • Opposites attract, even when they come from different ethnic backgrounds, Rob seems to shrilly scream at the top of its lungs.

  • That this conclusion had been reached by some one else in the car was proved by a woman's voice that rose shrilly above the rest.

  • Once they thought they heard voices outside, and shrilly they cried to their imaginary rescuers.

  • Startlingly Mrs. Briggs laughed, shrilly, unpleasantly, as a woman laughs in great fear.

    Scattergood Baines | Clarence Budington Kelland
  • She laughed shrilly, with a set, white face; which is the most unmirthful kind of laugh you can imagine.

    Jaffery | William J. Locke
  • A minute after that it seemed as though every door in every house on the street slammed shrilly.

    Molly Make-Believe | Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

British Dictionary definitions for shrill

shrill

/ (ʃrɪl) /


adjective
  1. sharp and high-pitched in quality

  2. emitting a sharp high-pitched sound

verb
  1. to utter (words, sounds, etc) in a shrill tone

  2. (tr) rare to cause to produce a shrill sound

Origin of shrill

1
C14: probably from Old English scralletan; related to German schrill shrill, Dutch schrallen to shriek

Derived forms of shrill

  • shrillness, noun
  • shrilly, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012