screech
Americanverb (used without object)
-
screeches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
screeched,
past participle, past
-
screeching
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
screeches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
screeched,
past participle, past
-
screeching
present participle
noun
-
screeches
plural
noun
verb
noun
Synonym Usage
See scream.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
screechsimple
-
screechessimple
-
have screechedperfect
-
has screechedperfect
-
am screechingprogressive
-
are screechingprogressive
-
is screechingprogressive
-
have been screechingperfect progressive
-
has been screechingperfect progressive
Past
-
screechedsimple
-
had screechedperfect
-
was screechingprogressive
-
were screechingprogressive
-
had been screechingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of screech
First recorded in 1550–60; variant of obsolete scritch “to scream”; akin to screak
Explanation
To screech is to make a piercing, high-pitched sound. It can also be the sound itself. Want to hear a screech? Take a little kid’s lollipop away. A screech is another word for a scream, shriek, or cry. It’s not fun to listen to. If a woman in a horror movie finds a bad guy in her closet, she’ll probably screech. If you surprise someone in the middle of the night, expect a screech. Things can also screech, like when a car screeches to a sudden stop at a red light.
Vocabulary lists containing screech
"The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry
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The Pigman
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Because of Winn-Dixie
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Overhead, airplanes screech across a fat blue sky in a hurry to who knows where.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The loud screech of a Typhoon and F-35 jet rips through the night sky above RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
In fact, any birder will tell you that the sky-rending screech that accompanies bald eagles in most media depictions actually belongs to a red-tailed hawk.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
Pareja then saw the housing market screech to a halt during the Great Recession, a crisis in which subprime mortgages were a central cause.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 12, 2025
Then there was a mind-numbing screech of feedback, and everything went quiet.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
New York City residents live with an ambient soundtrack of emergency sirens, subway screeches and I’m-walking-here arguments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
As one locomotive screeches into the old El-Raml Station, commuters and visitors crane their necks out of giant windows at the historic neo-Venetian buildings overhead.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
A few distant screeches of brooms on cobblestone, that’s all.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula—The mother bat screeches furiously as Rodrigo Medellín Legorreta grips her, a thumb under her chin to prevent her razor-sharp teeth from sinking into his gloved hand.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 11, 2023
The train jolts and scrapes and screeches back into motion, the little pile of clothes disappears from view and we trundle on towards London, moving at a brisk jogger’s pace.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
Transport across the island, which was already reeling from the worst economic crisis in memory, has screeched to a near halt as petrol pumps run dry.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Live events screeched to a halt during the Covid-19 pandemic but bounced back coming out of it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
In the 1970s, she observed a stratification between groups of chimpanzees at a national park in Tanzania, with increasing aggression as males screeched and threw objects.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026
On Thursday, mangled metal screeched as an excavator compacted the skeletons of former homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
From the rear of the building cocks screeched furiously, their cries mingling with the roar of the avenue, their cries interrupted every so often by the lilting qui-qui-ri-quí of the roosters they once were.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
When they took the stage, the band wasted no time exploding into a searing 10-song set led by “That Girl” and including a screeching cover of the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The concern among many observers is that Fedorov's departure will bring his ambitious reform and innovation programme to a screeching halt, despite Zelensky's assurances that nothing will change.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The kitchen sinks aren’t working, and the plumbing is simultaneously screeching and groaning.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
That came to a screeching halt after Zscaler on May 26 beat Wall Street’s expectations with its fiscal 2026 third-quarter earnings but reported sales guidance that came in light.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
It seemed an age before the high-pitched screeching sound had died and the panic-stricken creatures had departed.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
