Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use screech in a sentence

34 example sentences · noun, verb

Screech means a high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface. Example: “I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.”

Examples of screech by meaning

verbTo make such a sound.

  • The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8
  • AS THE residents of the quiet Midlothian housing estate prepared for the day ahead, the early-morning stillness was disturbed by the sound of screeching brakes and slamming doors.2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman

verbTo travel very fast, as if making the sound of a car that is driving too fast.

  • Real Madrid screeched after them: an entire herd, powerful and co-ordinated, salivating and breathing hard, murder in their eyes.2011 December 12, Sid Lowe, “Víctor Valdés epitomises Barcelona's bravery as Real Madrid falter”, in the Guardian

More sentences with screech

  • I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.From the entry smash
  • The leadfoot screeched to a stop inches from the tree.From the entry leadfoot
  • The cop car screeched out of the parking lot.From the entry screech out
  • The gate screeched in protest as she shoulder-barged it open and shoved it closed again.2021 August 10, Eden Darry, Quiet Village, Bold Strokes Books Inc, →ISBN. From the entry shoulder-barge
  • In the night the katydids and crickets screeched in waves, soft then loud, back and forth.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 52. From the entry katydid
  • I made shushy flapping movements with my hands, which only made him screech louder.2012, Caroline Green, Dark Ride. From the entry shushy
  • He had a sudden urge to laugh, to screech with laughter, to guffaw.2012 [1987], Rupert Thomson, Dreams of Leaving, reprint edition, A&C Black, →ISBN. From the entry spadeloads
  • He really showed his butt when he screeched in anger and frustration at finding it empty.2010, Laura Lacey Satterly, Survival 2033, →ISBN, page 65. From the entry show one's butt
  • A loud feedback screech blasted from a speaker on the wall.2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland, Picador, →ISBN. From the entry feedback
  • I dunno; do apesses screech more than male orangutans 'n' gorillae?1998 April 20, Geoff Miller, “Re: The Tuneless Whistler -- a trial of patience!”, in alt.peeves (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry apess
  • He was crushed flat, never even hearing the deafening screech of metal.1995, Peter Allen David, The Incredible Hulk: What savage beast. From the entry waffle
  • Their screeches heralded excited talk from the hurrying troops, for flying fox is a delicacy.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 154. From the entry fox
  • The screech owls winter in the north and are distinctly farsighted in preparing for winter.1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 102. From the entry screech owl
  • This is one of the reasons cowards so shrilly screech that Brenton Tarrant and Robert Bowers were Mossad false flag operations.2019 April 27, John T. Earnest, An open letter [so-called Earnest Manifesto], margin number 33. From the entry shrilly
  • The car’s engine revved up, and the back wheels screeched.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN. From the entry she
  • The chimpette screeches again, spraying Hericane's face with slobber.2012, Robert T. Jeschonek, Forced Betrayal. From the entry chimpette
  • Hearing the screech as a body will not wait.2011, Stephen Elkin, Mirror in the Bathroom, page 69. From the entry unabate
  • “Aunt Sissy!” a young voice screeched, then Sissy was besieged by five kids who looked barely a year apart.2008, Shelly Laurenston, The Mane Attraction, page 139. From the entry Catholic twins
  • It was exactly the sort of line that brought screeches of laughter on Workers’ Playtime or Midday Music-hall.1998, Derek Beaven, chapter 12, in Acts of Mutiny, London: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, part 1 (Motion), page 46. From the entry smoky
  • Robinsons Friday, the mighty Nimrod of New Millport, has succeeded in bagging 47 whistle pigs, 16 squirrels and a screech owl.1921 October 12, “News of Our Neighbors – New Millport”, in The Clearfield Progress, page 2. From the entry whistle pig
  • So don't expect to hear the growl of an overtuned V-8, the bark of an amplified exhaust, the screech of tires digging for grip.2020 April 16, Stephen Williams, “The Soundtrack to an Electric Car”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry overtuned
  • Seamus scrapes his chair back with an ear-splitting screech and dashes off to make a phone call to get the patient back to the department.2017, Adam Kay, This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 9. From the entry Twix
  • Piece of cake? her mind screeched.2006, Terri Farley, Phantom Stallion #21, page 210. From the entry permafrozen
  • A shot screeched past her head from the west, like a ghost bullet seemingly shot from the large gap of El Capitan itself.2005, Amy Lignor, The Heart of a Legend, page 6. From the entry ghost bullet
  • Suddenly, far down and beyond the toun there came a screech as the morning grew, a screech like an hungered beast in pain.1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe, page 34. From the entry hooter
  • He saw a spur-winged plover grubbing on a little mudberg and his eyes told him the mudberg moved when the bird screeched, flew, became a mote.2013, Jonathan Meades, Pompey, →ISBN. From the entry -berg
  • Tito tached up and dropped into low, leaving a fragrant set of tracks a block long and a screech that could be heard halfway to Boulder Dam.2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 245. From the entry tach up
  • So here I was, fondling all sorts of fine mats, when a hoss of a woman screeched into her cell phone, rattling the lamps in the light fixture aisle.2004 December 8, Susan Reinhardt, “Facing my fear: Doing Disney with the crowds”, in Asbury Park Press, page 18. From the entry hoss
  • That night under the porch there was a scrabbly sound, like a dog in a gravel pile, going steadily on under barks and groans and screeches.1992, G. W. Hawkes, Spies in the Blue Smoke, page 78. From the entry scrabbly
  • “Say hello to old Stanley,” he called as she pattered down the steps into the street, flung a babushka over her license plate and screeched away down Telegraph.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 79. From the entry babushka
  • How teen Italian males fawned all over them; in Venice I stood 20 feet away and a couple of them approached and flattered them while a couple others screeched, "Patri!2006 May 13, Douglas W Hoyt, “Groups”, in rec.travel.europe (Usenet). From the entry overwhelmment

Meaning of screech

  1. noun A high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface.
  2. noun A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream.
  3. noun Newfoundland rum.

Full definition of screech

Questions about screech in a sentence

How do you use screech in a sentence?
Screech is used as a noun and verb. For example: “I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.”
What is a short sentence with screech?
“Piece of cake? her mind screeched.”
What does screech mean?
Screech means a high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screech (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use screech in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/screech. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.