shrill
Americanadjective
-
shriller,
comparative
-
shrillest
superlative
-
high-pitched and piercing in sound quality.
a shrill cry.
-
producing such a sound.
-
full of or characterized by such a sound.
shrill music.
-
betraying some strong emotion or attitude in an exaggerated amount, as antagonism or defensiveness.
-
marked by great intensity; keen.
the shrill, incandescent light of the exploding bomb.
verb (used with or without object)
-
shrills,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shrilled,
past participle, past
-
shrilling
present participle
noun
adverb
adjective
-
sharp and high-pitched in quality
-
emitting a sharp high-pitched sound
verb
-
to utter (words, sounds, etc) in a shrill tone
-
rare (tr) to cause to produce a shrill sound
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shrillsimple
-
shrillssimple
-
have shrilledperfect
-
has shrilledperfect
-
am shrillingprogressive
-
are shrillingprogressive
-
is shrillingprogressive
-
have been shrillingperfect progressive
-
has been shrillingperfect progressive
Past
-
shrilledsimple
-
had shrilledperfect
-
was shrillingprogressive
-
were shrillingprogressive
-
had been shrillingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shrill
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
Explanation
A shrill sound is high pitched and sharp, like the squeak of the mouse in your cupboard or the sound of your “eek” when you hear it. Closer to a shriek than a trill, a shrill tone is one that might make you cover your ears, usually because the tone is so high and sharp. A high pitched voice, a classroom of excited first graders, or the sound of chalk scraping the board can all be shrill, as can a color or light that looks as sharp and intense as a shrill tone sounds.
Vocabulary lists containing shrill
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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List 5
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"Easter, 1916" by W.B. Yeats
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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:
The trust said this included dingy skipper, which is a small moth-like butterfly, and the shrill carder bumblebee, which was only found in two areas in England.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
“It’s like, every second word somebody’s doing a shrill horrible laugh,” he said, “and it’s nonstop through the entire piece.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
“My grandmother was a sharecropper in Arkansas, and I know that this is the same thing,” a man shouts at one point as whistles shrill and a handheld siren wails.
From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2026
Lopez handed one to Juan Ballena, who immediately used it — a shrill, reedy blast soon answered by others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025
Abby’s shrill cry rose above the thundering noise.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
Ethan Hawke registers in a much lower key, which counterbalances Amanda’s shriller moments.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2023
"We are seeing the rhetoric on topics like migration get shriller," said Stefan Marschall, political scientist at the University of Duesseldorf.
From Reuters ● Jun. 7, 2023
Over this period, the political discourse also became shriller.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2017
The tone of public debate in Germany has become shriller over the past two years with the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants.
From Time ● Jan. 1, 2017
It came out a lot louder and shriller than I intended, but when Sally looked up, she smiled.
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
His half-sublimated wranglings with race are more complex and fraught than either his shrillest detractors or his most fawning defenders would have us believe.
From Salon ● May 30, 2012
Pick: Giants Jets at Bills Line: Jets by 5 1/2 The Jets have joined the Chargers and the Cowboys as one of the league’s shrillest teams.
From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2010
“It’s a big test for the leadership. We cannot listen to the loudest, shrillest voices in our party,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican who represents the Philadelphia suburbs.
From Washington Post
The Reagan Administration heeded one of the shrillest last week by announcing voluntary restraints on steel imports.
From Time Magazine Archive
He waved his empty hands wildly up and down, cheering at the top of his voice; but his shrillest Hosannahs were heard only by himself.
From Joel: A Boy of Galilee by Annie F. (Annie Fellows) Johnston
Binoche is superbly entertaining as she first trills and shrills on the ways of proper womanhood, and then starts to relish the taste of new freedoms, like wearing trousers.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2023
Now his dog barks, the phone shrills and the laughter of chorus girls taunts him; yet he can’t make a sound.
From Time ● Dec. 27, 2011
Holding the other at bay with a sword cane, Cadell shrills a police whistle as the curtain falls.
From Time Magazine Archive
The fox shrills for freedom from its cage, where it is held because of the value of its fur.
From Time Magazine Archive
When Aunty Ifeoma woke me up, the room was dim and the shrills of the night crickets were dying away.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"Prepare for a hard landing," Deutsche Bank shrilled in a Wednesday report.
From Reuters ● Apr. 21, 2022
Magnets, magnets! shrilled my landlady, when I got back from weeks of doing what I was doing.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 21, 2019
"If Balotelli's price comes down then I'll get over to Manchester immediately," shrilled vice-president Adriano Galliani.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 21, 2013
The biometer shrilled again: temperature 102.5 and climbing.
From Nature ● Jun. 29, 2011
“Yii!” shrilled Rita, but no words came out.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
Thus was born the Nightingale of Samarkand, who was lowered in a cage during the bed scene while shrilling an insane modal tune to keep the Princess awake.
From New York Times ● Aug. 9, 2022
A feeling like alarm bells shrilling in an empty building, no one to turn the alarm off, no one to respond.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2020
Across social media, people are shrilling with outrage over the noise.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 2, 2020
Anyone who has thrilled to the shrilling of cicadas or marvelled at the bizarre behaviour of praying mantises will be entranced by this homage to the class Insecta.
From Nature ● Dec. 4, 2018
But the music of the pearl was shrilling with triumph in Kino.
From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
Definitions 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.
