screak

plural screaks

1. shriek; screech

   She did not run against chairs nor move a stool so that the legs emitted a "screak" of agony, and she could sit still for an hour at a time if she had a book.

   1898, Amanda Millie Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Boston

present singular third person screaks · participle present screaking · participle past screaked · past screaked

1. shriek; screech

   He finally does the hit next to the factory, causing the birds to screak and batter their cages.

   2003 November 14, Jeff Huebner, “Coming Home”, in Chicago Reader

   3 more examples

   The awfulest thing was the silence; there wasn't a sound but the screaking of the saddles, the measured tramplings, and the sneezing of the horses, afflicted by the smothering dust-clouds which they kicked up.

   1895 October, Louis de Conte, translated by [Jean François Alden] [pseudonyms; Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)], “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. […]”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XCI, number DXLV, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →ISSN, [book I], part II, chapter XVI, page 746, column 1

   They walk together in silence while behind them a freight train chuffs and screaks through the crossing.

   1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 64

   Which'll jar your bones, Jim!...sap your breath...distort your hearing for your own concrete thoughts 'til they screak like the muddled static of distant homily.

   1999 July 2, Richard Meltzer, “Vinyl Reckoning”, in Chicago Reader