shrill
adjective
high-pitched and piercing in sound quality.
were shrilling
-
past progressiveof shrill.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Birds were calling to their mates and their young; the locusts were shrilling out of depths of sunlight.
From Madelon A Novel by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
And the crickets were shrilling yet in the grass.
From The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains by Mary Noailles Murfree
Katydids were shrilling from every thicket, and over somewhere near the river a whippoorwill was persistently calling.
From Quaint Courtships by William Dean Howells
The grasshoppers were shrilling; all the birds who had their nests in the tree nearby retired and, as it was still light, they lingered in the branches to trill their good-night cadences.
From Brazilian Tales by Isaac Goldberg
Millions of grasshoppers were shrilling in the forest, filling the air with a metallic throbbing, and flocks of frightened parrots rushed from tree to tree.
From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky
