Word.ws English Dictionary

shrieking

shrieking is the present participle and gerund of shriek.

shrieking is the gerund of shriek.

Adjective

shrieking (comparative more shrieking, superlative most shrieking)

  1. That emits shrieks or high-pitched noises.
    • Then the old scourge of dusk swooped down upon the warderless hoard. It is he who burns up the sky at night in long trails of yellow flame, who flies above houses in a whirlwind of shrieking wings and gagging smoke.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 40
  2. (usually, Of a sound, voice) sharp, loud, and shrill.

Meaning of shriek

Verb

shriek (third-person singular simple present shrieks, present participle shrieking, simple past and past participle shrieked)

  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.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 95
  2. (transitive) To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
    • The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 33

See all 4 meanings of shriek

Forms of shrieking

Noun
pluralshriekings
Adjective
comparativemore shrieking
superlativemost shrieking

Origin of shrieking

From shriek + -ing.

Words formed from shrieking

Phrases with shrieking

Questions about shrieking

What does shrieking mean?
Shrieking means that emits shrieks or high-pitched noises.
What is shrieking the present participle and gerund of?
Shrieking is the present participle and gerund of shriek.
What part of speech is shrieking?
Shrieking is an adjective.

Words near shrieking in the dictionary

  1. shriekfests
  2. shriekier
  3. shriekiest
  4. shriekily
  5. shriekiness
  6. shrieking
  7. shrieking sixties
  8. shriekingly
  9. shriekings
  10. shriekling
  11. shrieklings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrieking (page history and authors); shriek (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: “shrieking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shrieking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.