shriek

noun

1. A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

   “Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.”

   “Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek?”

2. (UK, slang)An exclamation mark.

verb

1. (intransitive)To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.

   “Feebly ſhe ſhriekt, but ſo feebly indeed / That Britomart heard not the ſhrilling ſound.”

   “It was the owl that shrieked.”

   “At this she shriek'd aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.”

   “"[O]h, yes! the loon does shriek dreadfully - particularly when there's fine rain[.]"”

   “In winter the place was deserted and, with cold damp wind from the sea shrieking in the telegraph wires, the general feeling could be one of desolation.”

2. (transitive)To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.

   “The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.”

   “She shrieked his name to the dark woods.”