Link Centre Dictionary

screech

UK/skɹiːt͡ʃ/ US/skɹiːt͡ʃ/ fairly common
verb (2) noun (2)

verb

1.

make a high-pitched, screeching noise

  • “The door creaked when I opened it slowly”
Synonyms
2.

noun

1.

a high-pitched noise resembling a human cry

  • “he ducked at the screechings of shells”
  • “he heard the scream of the brakes”
Synonyms
2.

sharp piercing cry

  • “her screaming attracted the neighbors”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • Cambondo screeching frog
  • screech bird
  • screech hawk
  • screech martin
  • screech out
  • screech owl
  • screech thrush
  • screech tunnel

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.