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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
screech
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
brakes screech (=make a high noise when you use them)
▪ The brakes screeched and the train finally stopped.
sth screeches/shudders/skids/jolts to a halt (=a vehicle stops very quickly and noisily – used for emphasis)
▪ The car skidded to a halt and three men jumped out.
the screech of brakes (=the loud unpleasant sound of a car stopping suddenly)
▪ I heard the screech of brakes in the road outside.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
car
▪ She slammed the garage door into its slot and sent the car screeching into the road.
▪ The car screeched around the corner after him in a burst of fumes and querulous voices.
▪ Ron had pounced from his car, screeching to a halt ten yards ahead of them.
▪ She was walking with a friend, when she heard a car screech to a halt behind her.
▪ We sped from the car park undetected and screeched to a halt outside the flower shop, as instructed.
halt
▪ A police car emerged from the other alleyway and screeched to a halt ten yards in front of Whitlock, blocking his shot.
▪ When he went to a doctor, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and everything came to a screeching halt.
▪ Ron had pounced from his car, screeching to a halt ten yards ahead of them.
▪ All of which comes to a screeching halt when Capt.
▪ Not ten minutes had elapsed when the first van arrived and not eleven when the second screeched to a halt.
▪ He was on his second initiation raid when Geronimo was captured and it all came to a screeching halt.
▪ She was walking with a friend, when she heard a car screech to a halt behind her.
▪ The driver slammed on the brakes; the Jeep screeched to a halt.
■ VERB
come
▪ It came screeching out of the darkness, and not even the thunder could drown the scream of its menace.
▪ It came screeching and nose-diving to a stop on the far corner.
▪ When he went to a doctor, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and everything came to a screeching halt.
▪ All of which comes to a screeching halt when Capt.
▪ He was on his second initiation raid when Geronimo was captured and it all came to a screeching halt.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ ""Get out!'' she screeched angrily. ""I hate you!''
screeching brakes
▪ I heard Heather screech, "Hit him, Jim!"
▪ Maria suddenly started screeching at Bruno.
▪ Sue grabbed him, screeching, and started hitting him with her fists.
▪ The plane's tires screeched as it touched down on the runway.
▪ The train screeched as it pulled into the station.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A gull screeched overhead breaking the dreamy silence, and Julie's eyes flicked open.
▪ At intervals while we were negotiating with him, he screeched his battle songs and war cries.
▪ He jumped to his feet, screeching, when Delia Sutherland's shadow fell across him.
▪ Miss Defy screeched around a blind bend into the path of an oncoming sedan.
▪ Surface, and the sky is blue and seagulls screech.
▪ The wheels of wagons delivering feed or wood screeched as though they hurt.
▪ They posed holding hands for photographers before turning back to the screeching fans and signing yet more autographs.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Screech

Screech \Screech\ (skr[=e]ch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Screeched; p. pr. & vb. n. Screeching.] [Also formerly, scritch, OE. skriken, skrichen, schriken, of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. skr[ae]kja to shriek, to screech, skr[imac]kja to titter, Sw. skrika to shriek, Dan. skrige; also Gael. sgreach, sgreuch, W. ysgrechio, Skr. kharj to creak. Cf. Shriek, v., Scream, v.] To utter a harsh, shrill cry; to make a sharp outcry, as in terror or acute pain; to scream; to shriek. ``The screech owl, screeching loud.''
--Shak.

Screech

Screech \Screech\, n. A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream. Screech bird, or Screech thrush (Zo["o]l.), the fieldfare; -- so called from its harsh cry before rain. Screech rain. Screech hawk (Zo["o]l.), the European goatsucker; -- so called from its note. [Prov. Eng.] Screech owl. (Zo["o]l.)

  1. A small American owl ( Scops asio), either gray or reddish in color.

  2. The European barn owl. The name is applied also to other species.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
screech

1570s, alteration of scritch (mid-13c., schrichen), possibly of imitative origin (compare shriek). Related: Screeched; screeching. Screech-owl is attested from 1590s (scritch-owl is from 1520s).

screech

1550s, from screech (v.). Earlier scritch (1510s).

Wiktionary
screech

n. 1 A high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface. 2 A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream. 3 (qualifier Newfoundlander uncountable) Newfoundland rum. 4 A form of home-made rye whiskey made from used oak rye barrels from a distillery. vb. To make such a sound.

WordNet
screech
  1. v. make a high-pitched, screeching noise; "The door creaked when I opened it slowly" [syn: squeak, creak, screak, skreak]

  2. utter a harsh abrupt scream [syn: squawk, screak, skreak, skreigh]

screech
  1. n. a high-pitched noise resembling a human cry; "he ducked at the screechings of shells"; "he heard the scream of the brakes" [syn: screeching, shriek, shrieking, scream, screaming]

  2. sharp piercing cry; "her screaming attracted the neighbors" [syn: scream, screaming, shriek, shrieking, screeching]

Wikipedia
Screech (mascot)

Screech is the mascot of the Washington Nationals. He is a bald eagle that wears the home cap and jersey of the team. He was "hatched" on April 17, 2005 at the "Kids Opening Day" promotion at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. A nine-year-old fourth grade student in Washington D.C, Glenda Gutierrez, designed the mascot and won a contest sponsored by the team and explained that it was "strong and eats almost everything."

In 2009, the Nationals unveiled a redesigned Screech. The new costume, designed by Major League Baseball's design department made the mascot slimmer. The Nationals explained that the original design was of an eagle that was always intended to grow up one day. A Nationals official described him as "like a teenager now". The 2012 Topps Opening Day card described Screech as a dazzling dancer, full of loyal shenanigans directed at the opposing team. "Screech" was one of two individuals (along with "Roberto", who was not a future mascot) to receive a shoutout in Donny Hathaway's old-school classic Howard U / DC track "Sugar Lee".

Screech

Screech may mean:

  • Samuel "Screech" Powers, character played by Dustin Diamond in the NBC television sitcom Saved by the Bell
    • Nickname inspired by above for Manchester United F.C. footballer Marouane Fellaini
  • A mascot for numerous sports teams, including:
    • Screech (mascot), the Major League Baseball Washington Nationals
    • the mascot of the American Hockey League Springfield Falcons
    • the mascot of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
  • Newfoundland Screech, a brand of rum from Newfoundland
  • "Screech Squad," the trumpet section of the Marching Chiefs
  • Screech (comics), an armored vigilante in Marvel comics
  • exclamation mark (!), used in computer terminology and in the UK

Usage examples of "screech".

And what a screech would there not be among the clergy of the Church, even in these reforming days, if any over-bold reformer were to suggest that such an approximation should be attempted?

It must of taken the blader by the side, for otherwise you would not hear a screech quite as they heard.

She brandished this as she screeched her threats and curses at the men on the parapet.

Major Burin, the communications officer, practiced calling square-dance tunes, accompanied by the screeching fiddle music he played on his portable tape recorder.

And it was waged in a silence broken only by gasps of weariness or pain: There was none of the screeching and hooting that would normally have accompanied an attack by two juniors on a dominant male.

He threw himself back and forth around the line of trees, drumming with open palms on tree trunks, ripping off thin branches and shaking them so their leaves cascaded around him, screeching and hooting the while.

Deeply unhappy, they pushed, jostled, and slapped, hooting and screeching at each other.

She was surrounded by screeching and hooting, and fists pounded at her back and head.

She whirled about on the lawn like a dervish, hooting and screeching, her pink mouth open.

The screech so startled Marcie that she dropped the sheet and spun around.

All the screeching reptyles that could stand between the falls and the garrison would have no effect on my narves at this time of day.

There were shouts, screams, thuds, the screech of an outraged Torminel, the agitated chime of Daimong voices.

Not every one of these trees and plants had been parasitized by the unknown, ominous creatures Cody could now see clearly, but enough of them were to cause him to jerk sharply on the wheel and send the car screeching away from the greenbelt bordering the school and over into the fast lane.

Christmas morn in the little village: that widow screeching about highwaymen, then Charlie Parrett riding in facedown, and a slip of a thing running off to London to save herself from a fate worse than death, now this bedlamite.

Deneir the Prattler and Gond of the Forgestinking Breath, and even to Milil, Lord of Screeching Racket!