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”).
Meanings
High-pitched and piercing.
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. 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, prologue], page 77, column 1:
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; […] 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XIII.4, page 11:
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. 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 118:
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. 1868, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “A Dread Revelation”, in Charlotte’s Inheritance […], volume (please specify |volume I to III), London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler […], →OCLC:
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 minerals. 2010 October 14, Jacqueline Friedrich, “Son follows in late winemaker Didier Dagueneau’s storied footsteps”, in Los Angeles Times, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2017:
(derogatory, figuratively) Especially of a woman: fierce, loud, strident.
The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife, shrill, vehement, and fluent. 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Church-yard. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC:
nl schel (high-pitched and piercing) · mk остар (sharp or keen to the senses) · pt agudo (sharp or keen to the senses) · grc ὀξύφωνος (having a shrill voice) · mi tikā (high-pitched and piercing) · la strīdulus (high-pitched and piercing) · fi kirpeä (sharp or keen to the senses) · cy main (high-pitched and piercing) · de schrill (high-pitched and piercing) · sl vreščeč (high-pitched and piercing) · it isterico (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · mk писклив (having a shrill voice) · cmn 尖聲的 /尖声的 (high-pitched and piercing) · bg писклив (high-pitched and piercing) · ast trescaladizu (high-pitched and piercing) · nl scherp (sharp or keen to the senses) · mi tioro (high-pitched and piercing) · hu sipító (high-pitched and piercing) · tl matinis (high-pitched and piercing) · pt estrídulo (high-pitched and piercing) · cs pronikavý (high-pitched and piercing) · fi kimeä (high-pitched and piercing) · cmn 刺耳的 (high-pitched and piercing) · cs ječivý (high-pitched and piercing) · es agudo (high-pitched and piercing) · fr strident (high-pitched and piercing) · uk прони́зливий (high-pitched and piercing) · fi kova (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · cs hlasitý (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · sh drečav (sharp or keen to the senses) · fi terävä (sharp or keen to the senses) · it penetrante (high-pitched and piercing) · fi kimakka (high-pitched and piercing) · bg пронизителен (high-pitched and piercing) · es penetrante (high-pitched and piercing) · fi kimeä-ääninen (having a shrill voice) · fi äänekäs (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · sv gäll (high-pitched and piercing) · mk остар (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · sh piskav (high-pitched and piercing) · it stridente (high-pitched and piercing) · cs ostrý (high-pitched and piercing) · lv spalgs (high-pitched and piercing) · sh drečav (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · es estridente (high-pitched and piercing) · da skinger (high-pitched and piercing) · it stridulo (high-pitched and piercing) · mi tīkākā (high-pitched and piercing) · fi tiukka (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · fr criard (having a shrill voice) · de scharf (sharp or keen to the senses) · it stridio (high-pitched and piercing) · sh kreštav (having a shrill voice) · pt estridente (high-pitched and piercing) · ru пронзи́тельный (high-pitched and piercing) · mk пискав (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · bg писклив (having a shrill voice) · sh kreštav (high-pitched and piercing) · mk писклив (high-pitched and piercing) · ca estrident (high-pitched and piercing) · mk продорен (high-pitched and piercing) · mk пискав (high-pitched and piercing) · gl estridente (high-pitched and piercing) · cs ostrý (especially of a complaint or demand: fierce, loud, strident) · eo strida (high-pitched and piercing) · it stridore (high-pitched and piercing) · bg рязък (sharp or keen to the senses) · it acuto (sharp or keen to the senses) · sh drečav (high-pitched and piercing) · it stridula (having a shrill voice) · cs ostrý (sharp or keen to the senses) · it squillante (high-pitched and piercing) · ja 甲高い (high-pitched and piercing) · it stridente (sharp or keen to the senses) · gl agudo (sharp or keen to the senses)
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”).
Meanings
A shrill sound.
[W]hen at laſt / I heard a voyce, which loudly to me called, / That with ſuddein ſhrill I was appalled. 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Ruines of Time”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, part 6:
The shrill of the whistle from the locomotive “Charlestown” announced the arrival of the first train into Fitchburg on 5 March 1845— […] 2015, Cliff[ord J.] Schexnayder, Builders of the Hoosac Tunnel, Portsmouth, N.H.: Peter E. Randall, →ISBN:
Sonographic example of two consecutive loud shrills of a common marmoset, showing sound frequencies of harmonics reaching into the ultrasonic range. 2018, Jaco Bakker, Johannes A. M. Langermans, “Ultrasonic Components of Vocalizations in Marmosets”, in Stefan M. Brudzynski, editor, Handbook of Ultrasonic Vocalization: A Window into the Emotional Brain (Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience; 25), London; San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, →ISBN, part L (Ultrasonic Vocalization in Other Vertebrate Taxa), figure 49.1 caption, page 539, column 2:
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
shrills
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (5)
sh piskanje (shrill sound) · sh drečanje (shrill sound) · fi kimeä ääni (shrill sound) · bg писък (shrill sound) · sh kreštanje (shrill sound)
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”).
Meanings
To make a shrill noise.
As the guard's whistle shrilled the "right away," I made to join my companions in the train, but with a smile the driver, whose name was Abdul, bade me take the fireman's seat. 1942 July-August, Philip Spencer, “On the Footplate in Egypt”, in Railway Magazine, page 208:
Harke how Troy roares, how Hecuba cries out, / How poore Andromache ſhrils her dolours foorth, / Behold deſtruction, frenzie, and amazement, / Like witleſſe antiques one another meete, / And all crie Hector, Hectors dead, O Hector. c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
Not ballad-ſinger plac'd above the croud, / Sings with a note ſo ſhrilling ſweet and loud, / Nor pariſh clerk who calls the pſalm ſo clear, / Like Bowzybeus ſooths th' attentive ear. 1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Saturday; or, The Flights”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 56, lines 47–50:
[F]rom them rose / A cry that shiver'd to the tingling stars, / And, as it were one voice, an agony / Of lamentation, like a wind, that shrills / All night in a waste land, where no one comes, / Or hath come, since the making of the world. 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 13:
As she stumbles over scattered clothes, randomly kicked-off shoes, newspapers, and video games, she finally reaches the telephone, as it shrills out its cries to be picked up. 2010, Ray Jones, “The Night Before”, in The Suits: An Animated Way to Look at Family Life, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 3:
[H]e paused, while his hands clutched, and his voice shrilled with passion— […] 1880 November 12, Lew[is] Wallace, chapter IV, in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, book fourth, page 195:
Jesse Lingard, another substitute, was only eight yards out when Harry Maguire’s knock-down fell for him but it was a wild finish and [Gareth] Southgate still had his head in his hands when the final whistle shrilled. 2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2018:
They, as a cloud of ſtarlings or of daws / Fly ſcreaming ſhrill, warn'd timely of the kite / Or hawk, devourers of the ſmaller kinds, / So they ſhrill—clamouring toward the fleet, / Haſted before Æneas and the might / Of Hector, nor the battle heeded more. 1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XVII.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 481, lines 913–918:
The labourers of the day were all retired to reſt; the lights were out in every cottage; no ſounds were heard but of the ſhrilling cock, and the deep-mouthed watch-dog, at hollow diſtance. 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “A Ballad”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume II, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 57:
And all wee dwell in deadly night, / O heauie herſe. / Breake we our pipes, that ſhrild as lowde as Larke, / O carefull verſe. 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC, folio 45, recto:
'Cause the owls only call out when something happens the rest of us can't understand. When they shrill, it's something terrible, […] 2003, Paul Lathan, chapter 6, in The Cemetery Within, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 36:
ru визжать (to make a shrill noise) · sh kreštati (to make a shrill noise) · bg пискам (to make a shrill noise) · sh vrištati (to make a shrill noise) · sh piskati (to make a shrill noise) · fi kirkaista (to make a shrill noise) · it stridere (to make a shrill noise) · ru верещать (to make a shrill noise) · sh drečati (to make a shrill noise) · cs ječet (to make a shrill noise) · eo stridi (to make a shrill noise) · cs zaječet (to make a shrill noise)