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Screech

//skɹiːt͡ʃ// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface. countable
  2. 2
    sharp piercing cry wordnet
  3. 3
    A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream. countable
  4. 4
    a high-pitched noise resembling a human cry wordnet
  5. 5
    Newfoundland rum. Newfoundland, uncountable
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A form of home-made rye whiskey made from used oak rye barrels from a distillery. uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To make such a sound.

    "That the night owl should screech before the noonday sun, that the bat should wheel around the bad of beauty […]"

  2. 2
    utter a harsh abrupt scream wordnet
  3. 3
    To travel very fast, as if making the sound of a car that is driving too fast. figuratively, intransitive

    "You've got to admire their balls. Real Madrid screeched after them: an entire herd, powerful and co-ordinated, salivating and breathing hard, murder in their eyes. So Barcelona moved the ball on, away from them. Forced back, it was played into Víctor Valdés, the goalkeeper, who slotted it to Carles Puyol, who gave it back again."

  4. 4
    make a high-pitched, screeching noise wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

1602; altered with expressive vowel lengthening from earlier skrech (1577), variant of obsolete scritch, from Middle English skriken, shrichen, schrichen (1250), from Old English (attested as scriccettan) and Old Norse skríkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną (compare Icelandic skríkja, Old Saxon scricōn, Danish skrige, Swedish skrika), derivative of *skrīhaną (compare Middle Dutch schriën, German schreien, Low German dial. schrien, schriegen), ultimately of imitative origin.

Etymology 2

1602; altered with expressive vowel lengthening from earlier skrech (1577), variant of obsolete scritch, from Middle English skriken, shrichen, schrichen (1250), from Old English (attested as scriccettan) and Old Norse skríkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną (compare Icelandic skríkja, Old Saxon scricōn, Danish skrige, Swedish skrika), derivative of *skrīhaną (compare Middle Dutch schriën, German schreien, Low German dial. schrien, schriegen), ultimately of imitative origin.

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