1. shriek - Noun
2. shriek - Verb
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.
To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
Source: Webster's dictionaryCaxtons are mechanical birds with many wings And some are treasured for their markings - They cause the eyes to melt Or the body to shriek without pain. Craig Raine
The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. John Milton
Children are the most wonderful audiences. What's struck me most is that that they watch it so silently, until the end when they shriek and shout and clap. Emma Thompson
The groan of the people spread over the hills; it was like the thunder of night, when the cloud bursts on Cona; and a thousand ghosts shriek at once on the hollow wind. James Macpherson
But hark! what shriek of death comes in the gale, And in the distant ray what glimmering sail Bends to the storm?-Now sinks the note of fear! Ah? wretched mariners!-no more shall day Unclose his cheering eye to light ye on your way! Ann Radcliffe
Half of the great comedians I've had in my shows and that I paid a lot of money to and who made my customers shriek were not only not funny to me, but I couldn't understand why they were funny to anybody. Florenz Ziegfeld