screech
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L327294 on Wikidata ↗verb
- say, yell in a screeching manner
- (cause to) emit noise
- stop
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /skɹiːt͡ʃ/ / [skɹiːt͡ʃ] / [skɹit͡ʃ]
noun
Etymology: 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.
- A high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface.
- A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream.
- Newfoundland rum.
- A form of home-made rye whiskey made from used oak rye barrels from a distillery.
verb
Etymology: 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.
- 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 […]”
“"Have you not met them?" "No, I have met nothing but three cormorants, which were sitting on a bit of drift-wood screeching."”
- To travel very fast, as if making the sound of a car that is driving too fast.
“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.”