Crossword clues for shrill
shrill
- Like some bird calls
- Unpleasantly high-pitched, as a voice
- Unpleasantly high-pitched
- Piercing in tone
- Like many whistles
- Like high-pitched tones
- Like an ear-piercing sound
- Like a cicadas song
- Irritatingly high-pitched
- High in an irritating way
- High in an annoying way
- Annoyingly high-pitched
- (Of a cry) piercing
- Like the sound of a teakettle
- Like the sound of a siren
- High-pitched and piercing
- Piercing, as a sound
- Strident
- Like a calliope
- Quiet running water becoming piercingly loud
- Excessively strident
- Keen to immerse husband in southern brook
- Keen husband dipped into small brook
- Keen horse stuck in bottom of Becher's Brook
- Piercing, strident
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shrill \Shrill\, a. [Compar. Shriller; superl. Shrillest.] [OE. shril, schril; akin to LG. schrell, G. schrill. See Shrill,v. i.] Acute; sharp; piercing; having or emitting a sharp, piercing tone or sound; -- said of a sound, or of that which produces a sound.
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confused.
--Shak.
Let winds be shrill, let waves roll high.
--Byron.
Shrill \Shrill\, n.
A shrill sound. [Obs.]
--Spenser.
Shrill \Shrill\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Shrilled; p. pr. & vb. n. Shrilling.] [OE. schrillen, akin to G. schrillen; cf. AS. scralletan to resound loudly, Icel. skr["o]lta to jolt, Sw. skr["a]lla to shrill, Norw. skryla, skr?l
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Cf. Skirl.] To utter an acute, piercing sound; to sound with a sharp, shrill tone; to become shrill.
Break we our pipes, that shrilledloud as lark.
--Spenser.No sounds were heard but of the shrilling cock.
--Goldsmith.His voice shrilled with passion.
--L. Wallace.
Shrill \Shrill\, v. t. To utter or express in a shrill tone; to cause to make a shrill sound.
How poor Andromache shrills her dolors forth.
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., schrylle "high-pitched, piercing" (of the voice), probably related to Old English scralletan "to sound loudly" and of imitative origin (compare Low German schrell, German schrill "piercing, shrill"). Related: Shrillness; shrilly (adv.).
"to sound shrilly," c.1300, imitative (see shrill (adj.). Related: Shrilled; shrilling.
Wiktionary
1 High-pitched and piercing. 2 Sharp or keen to the senses. n. A shrill sound. v
To make a shrill noise.
WordNet
Usage examples of "shrill".
Top still barked, and Jup, running towards the dog, uttered shrill cries.
Year - The sting of the stirring sap Under the wizardry of the young-eyed Spring, Their summer amplitudes of pomp, Their rich autumnal melancholy, and the shrill, Embittered housewifery Of the lean Winter: all such things, And with them all the goodness of the Master, Whose right hand blesses with increase and life, Whose left hand honours with decay and death.
Into the midst of this mad mellay sprang the cavalryman, turning loose his horse, which animal, urged by shrill yells and slyly administered lashings, went tearing away over the prairie.
Shrill whistling came from the mustelid pens, and roaring barks from the pinniped colony down on the beach below.
And she had outgrown any usefulness she might once have had when Sybil had won a shrill argument with Lord and Lady Barrie a few months before and been officially released from the schoolroom.
After midnight their shrill notes burst into a kind of pandemoniac cachinnation which filled all the countryside, and not until dawn did they finally quiet down.
Lucie uttered her shrill plaint, Arthur at one side, his modulated tones in the middle register, and the bass of the minister pealed forth like an organ, while the voices of the women repeating his words took them up in chorus delightfully.
Plume reappeared alone, went straight to his home, and slammed the door behind him, a solecism rarely known at Sandy, and presently on the hot and pulseless air there arose the sound of shrill protestation in strange vernacular.
Calling with shrill dove notes like laughter, they plunged their striped prods into the willing quemes of the mares, then pranced off, dripping still, to the applause of the hunters.
The klaxon shrilled raucously, and then Ainslie looked from Quinton to Halliday.
Deliberately, he blocked out the scrabbling and rustling from the overturned trash barrel, the shrill voice with its accusations against the luckless Quishan, and the ever-present rumble from the port .
Laenea nodded toward a nearby group of people, hyper and shrill on sleep repressors and energizers.
As he traded blows with a broad, stocky, armored Spaniard astride a nimble, dancing roan mare, Foster sensed menace from his left a moment before a shrill scream of equine agony from that very quarter all but deafened him.
He placed two fingers to his lips and emitted a shrill whistle, and a few seconds later the little schnauzer raced up from behind one of the Skillo games.
Graham was standing before his mirror, his electric shaver whirring busily, when the telephone shrilled.