| Library / English Dictionary |
SHRILL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of colors that are bright and gaudy
Example:
a shrill turquoise
Classified under:
Similar:
colorful; colourful (having much or varied color)
Derivation:
shrillness (the quality of being sharp or harsh to the senses)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Being sharply insistent on being heard
Example:
shrill criticism
Synonyms:
shrill; strident
Classified under:
Similar:
imperative (requiring attention or action)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having or emitting a high-pitched and sharp tone or tones
Example:
a shrill gaiety
Synonyms:
sharp; shrill
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
high; high-pitched (used of sounds and voices; high in pitch or frequency)
Derivation:
shrillness (having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Utter a shrill cry
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "shrill" is one way to...):
call; cry; holler; hollo; scream; shout; shout out; squall; yell (utter a sudden loud cry)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shrill"):
caterwaul; yowl (utter shrieks, as of cats)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Sentence examples:
The birds shrill in the woods
The woods shrill with many kinds of birds
Derivation:
shrilling (a continuing shrill noise)
Context examples:
So it was an unusually lively meeting, and did not adjourn till a late hour, when it broke up with three shrill cheers for the new member.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The staring of Mrs. Markleham during the whole narration, and the shrill, sharp interjections with which she occasionally interrupted it, defy description.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A shrill little whistle, piping as if gone mad, came from directly ahead and from very near at hand.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Irvine thrust between his lips the little finger of each hand and lent to her efforts a shrill whistling.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
With a shrill cry of anger a man rose from a reclining chair beside the fire.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
An oath from Perrault, the resounding impact of a club upon a bony frame, and a shrill yelp of pain, heralded the breaking forth of pandemonium.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Three doors faced up upon the second floor, and it was from the central of these that the sinister sounds were issuing, sinking sometimes into a dull mumble and rising again into a shrill whine.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent phlegmatic order of people, to whom one may at any time safely communicate a remarkable piece of news without incurring the danger of having one's ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation, and subsequently stunned by a torrent of wordy wonderment.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And he could not help but contrast it with the weak pipings and shrill quaverings of factory girls, ill-nourished and untrained, and with the raucous shriekings from gin-cracked throats of the women of the seaport towns.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
