Meanings
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of shriek
plural shriekings
- gerundgerund of shriek: an act of uttering a loud, sharp, or shrill cry or sound; also, a sound that shrieks.
Soon, 'midst the shriekings of the tossing wind, / The 'dark blue depths' he sang of, shall have bore / Our all of Byron to his native shore!
1826, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Stanzas on the Death of Lord Byron”, in Charlotte Porter, Helen A[rchibald] Clarke, editors, The Complete Works of Mrs. E. B. Browning, Arno edition, volume I, New York, N.Y.: George D. Sproul, published 1901, →OCLC, page 105
comparative more shrieking · superlative most shrieking
- That emits shrieks or high-pitched noises.
Then the old scourge of dusk swooped down upon the warderless hoard. It is he who burns up the sky at night in long trails of yellow flame, who flies above houses in a whirlwind of shrieking wings and gagging smoke.
1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 40
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna high-pitched noise resembling a human cry
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
shrieking. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shrieking
“shrieking.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shrieking. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shrieking,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shrieking.
Source: shrieking on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.