Word.ws English Dictionary

screeching

/ˈskɹiːt͡ʃɪŋ/

screeching is the present participle and gerund of screech.

Meaning of screech

Verb

screech (third-person singular simple present screeches, present participle screeching, simple past and past participle screeched)

  1. To make such a sound.
    • That the night owl should screech before the noonday sun, that the bat should wheel around the bad of beauty […]1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC
  2. (figuratively, intransitive) To travel very fast, as if making the sound of a car that is driving too fast.
    • You've got to admire their balls. Real Madrid screeched after them: an entire herd, powerful and co-ordinated, salivating and breathing hard, murder in their eyes. So Barcelona moved the ball on, away from them. Forced back, it was played into Víctor Valdés, the goalkeeper, who slotted it to Carles...2011 December 12, Sid Lowe, “Víctor Valdés epitomises Barcelona's bravery as Real Madrid falter”, in the Guardian

See all 6 meanings of screech

Noun

screeching (plural screechings)

  1. The act of producing a screech.
    • hysterical screechings
    • Silence reigned, broken only by the hideous screeching of vultures and the sound of a lawn-mower being used in the hospital grounds.1936, F.J. Thwaites, The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards Publishing, published 1940, page 58

Forms of screeching

pluralscreechings

Words formed from screeching

Phrases with screeching

Questions about screeching

What does screeching mean?
Screeching means the act of producing a screech.
What is screeching the present participle and gerund of?
Screeching is the present participle and gerund of screech.
What part of speech is screeching?
Screeching is a noun.
How do you pronounce screeching?
Screeching is pronounced /ˈskɹiːt͡ʃɪŋ/.
What is the plural of screeching?
The plural of screeching is screechings.

Words near screeching in the dictionary

  1. screechier
  2. screechiest
  3. screechily
  4. screechin'
  5. screechiness
  6. screeching
  7. screeching frog
  8. screeching frogs
  9. screeching out
  10. screechingly
  11. screechings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screeching (page history and authors); screech (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “screeching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/screeching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.