shrieve

plural shrieves

1. obsoleteObsolete form of sheriff.

   I know him: he was a botcher's 'prentice in Paris, from whence he was whipped for getting the shrieve's fool with child: a dumb innocent that could not say him nay.

   c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   1 more example

   Please it your Majesty, here is the shrieve of Northamptonshire, with certain persons that of late committed a riot, and have appealed to your Majesty beseeching your Highness for special cause to hear them.

   1591, unknown author, The Troublesome Reign of King John

present singular third person shrieves · participle present shrieving · past shrieved · participle past shrieved · participle past shriven

1. obsoleteObsolete form of shrive.

   He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away The Albatross's blood.

   1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere

   2 more examples

   […]he ordered [father Jerome] to be called and shrieve the prisoner.

   1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

   The jealous churl hath deeply swore, That, if again he venture o’er, He shall shrieve penitent no more.

   1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto First. The Castle.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XXII, page 44

2. obsoleteTo question.

   But afterwards she gan him soft to shrieve, And wooe with fair intreatie, to disclose Which of the nymphes his heart so sore did mieve:

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “The Faerie Queene”, in Henry John Todd, editor, The Works of Edmund Spenser, published 1869, page 243