Shrill

/ʃɹɪl/ · adjective

Meaning

High-pitched and piercing..

Definitions by Sense

1. High-pitched and piercing.
2. Having a shrill voice.
3. Sharp or keen to the senses.
4. (figuratively, derogatory, especially of a woman) Fierce, loud, strident.
5. To make a shrill noise.
6. A shrill sound.

Example Sentences

The woods rang with shrill cries of the birds.

Suppoſe, that you haue ſeene / The well-appointed King at Douer Peer, / Embarke his Royaltie: and his braue Fleet, / With ſilken Streamers, the young Phebus fayning; / [...] Heare the ſhrill Whiſtle, which doth order giue / To ſounds confus'd.

Let winds be shrill, let waves roll high, / I fear not wave nor wind; / Yet marvel not, Sir Childe, that I / Am sorrowful in mind; [...]

But I discovered no trace of him, and was beginning to conjecture that some fortunate chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces; when suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream.

"It is Miss Halliday!" cried the house-maid, as she opened the door. "And oh my," she added, looking back into the hall with a sorrowful face, "how bad she do look!" [...] "Oh, don't she look white!" cried a shrill girl with a baby in her arms.

Rather than shrill, feisty whites tasting of grass, green beans, gooseberry or pipi de chat (the somehow more polite French term for cat's pee), [Didier] Dagueneau's Sauvignons were statuesque, beautifully balanced wines with flavors reminiscent of citrus zests, apricot, fig, passion fruit and minerals.

The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife, shrill, vehement, and fluent.

And all wee dwell in deadly night, / O heauie herſe. / Breake we our pipes, that ſhrild as lowde as Larke, / O carefull verſe.

Synonyms for shrill

Antonyms for shrill

Related Words

Word Forms

• shriller
• shrillest
• shrills
• shrilling
• shrilled

Usage Notes

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