shrill
English
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shrill
- /ʃɹɪl/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ɪl
Where it comes from
From Late Middle English schrille, shirle, shrille (“of a sound: high-pitched, piercing; producing such a sound”), possibly from the earlier shil, schille (“loud, resounding; high-pitched”), from Old English sċill (“sonorous sounding”), of Germanic origin and probably ultimately imitative.
The r in the word was introduced by analogy to Middle English skrīke, skrīken, scrēmen, possibly to avoid confusion with non-Anglian forms of schelle (modern English shell) where Old English sċill (“sonorous sounding”) and sċill (“shell”) existed.
The word is cognate with Icelandic skella (“crash, bang, slam”), Low German schrell (“sharp in taste or tone”).
adjective shriller · shrillest
- High-pitched and piercing. The woods rang with shrill cries of the birds.
- Having a shrill voice. "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.
- Sharp or keen to the senses. 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 miner
- Especially of a woman: fierce, loud, strident. The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife, shrill, vehement, and fluent.
verb shrills · shrilling · shrilled
- To make a shrill noise. And all wee dwell in deadly night, / O heauie herſe. / Breake we our pipes, that ſhrild as lowde as Larke, / O carefull verſe.
noun shrills
- A shrill sound. [W]hen at laſt / I heard a voyce, which loudly to me called, / That with ſuddein ſhrill I was appalled.
Translations
Every language
adj high-pitched and piercing
| Español | estridente, agudo, penetrante |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 甲高い kandakai |
| 中文 | 尖聲的 /尖声的 jiānshēng de, 刺耳的 cì'ěr de |
| Português | estridente, estrídulo |
| Français | strident |
| Deutsch | schrill |
| Italiano | stridulo, stridore, stridio, stridente, penetrante, squillante |
| Русский | пронзи́тельный pronzítelʹnyj |
adj especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident
| Italiano | isterico |
|---|
Talk about this word "shrill." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shrill. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. shrill. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shrill "shrill." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shrill.Cite this
@misc{shrill_2026,
title = {shrill},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shrill},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
