shrill

UK/ʃɹɪl/

shrill adjective: high-pitched and piercing.

Adjective

shrill (comparative shriller, superlative shrillest)

High-pitched and piercing.
- The woods rang with shrill cries of the birds.
- Suppoſe, that you haue ſeene / The well-appointed King at Douer Peer, / Embarke his Royaltie: and his braue Fleet, / With ſilken Streamers, the young Phebus fayning; / […] Heare the ſhrill Whiſtle, which doth order giue / To ſounds confus'd.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Having a shrill voice.
- "It is Miss Halliday!" cried the house-maid, as she opened the door. "And oh my," she added, looking back into the hall with a sorrowful face, "how bad she do look!" […] "Oh, don't she look white!" cried a shrill girl with a baby in her arms.1868, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “A Dread Revelation”, in Charlotte’s Inheritance […], volume (please specify |volume I to III), London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler […], →OCLC
Sharp or keen to the senses.
- Rather than shrill, feisty whites tasting of grass, green beans, gooseberry or pipi de chat (the somehow more polite French term for cat's pee), [Didier] Dagueneau's Sauvignons were statuesque, beautifully balanced wines with flavors reminiscent of citrus zests, apricot, fig, passion fruit and...2010 October 14, Jacqueline Friedrich, “Son follows in late winemaker Didier Dagueneau’s storied footsteps”, in Los Angeles Times, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2017
(derogatory, figuratively) Especially of a woman: fierce, loud, strident.
- The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife, shrill, vehement, and fluent.1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Church-yard. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC

Verb

shrill (third-person singular simple present shrills, present participle shrilling, simple past and past participle shrilled)

To make a shrill noise.
- And all wee dwell in deadly night, / O heauie herſe. / Breake we our pipes, that ſhrild as lowde as Larke, / O carefull verſe.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC, folio 45, recto
- Harke how Troy roares, how Hecuba cries out, / How poore Andromache ſhrils her dolours foorth, / Behold deſtruction, frenzie, and amazement, / Like witleſſe antiques one another meete, / And all crie Hector, Hectors dead, O Hector.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609...

Noun

shrill (plural shrills)

A shrill sound.
- [W]hen at laſt / I heard a voyce, which loudly to me called, / That with ſuddein ſhrill I was appalled.1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Ruines of Time”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, part 6
- The shrill of the whistle from the locomotive “Charlestown” announced the arrival of the first train into Fitchburg on 5 March 1845— […]2015, Cliff[ord J.] Schexnayder, Builders of the Hoosac Tunnel, Portsmouth, N.H.: Peter E. Randall, →ISBN

shrill meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

shrill in Marathi

a shrill, harsh or grating quality in the voice: कंठकार्कश्य kaṇṭhakārkaśya

shrill in Urdu

کٹیلی, تیکھی, تیز

More languagesFewer languages

shrill in Bengali: তীক্ষ্ণ, কর্কশ
shrill in Telugu: కీచు kīcu
shrill in Malayalam: തുളച്ചുകയറുന്ന, ഉദാത്ത, ഉച്ചസ്വരത്തിലുള്ള, താരസ്വരത്തിലുള്ള
shrill in Kannada: ಕೀರಲು, ಕೀಚು, ತೀಕ್ಷ್ಣ, ತಾರಸ್ಥಾಯಿಯ
shrill in Tagalog: matinis

Examples of shrill in a sentence

Let winds be shrill, let waves roll high, / I fear not wave nor wind; / Yet marvel not, Sir Childe, that I / Am sorrowful in mind; […]1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh...
But I discovered no trace of him, and was beginning to conjecture that some fortunate chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces; when suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London...
Not ballad-ſinger plac'd above the croud, / Sings with a note ſo ſhrilling ſweet and loud, / Nor pariſh clerk who calls the pſalm ſo clear, / Like Bowzybeus ſooths th' attentive ear.1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Saturday; or, The Flights”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 56, lines...
The labourers of the day were all retired to reſt; the lights were out in every cottage; no ſounds were heard but of the ſhrilling cock, and the deep-mouthed watch-dog, at hollow diſtance.1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “A Ballad”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume II, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis]...

All 40 example sentences with shrill

Forms of shrill

Adjective
comparative	shriller
superlative	shrillest
Verb
third-person singular present	shrills
present participle	shrilling
past participle	shrilled
past	shrilled
Noun
plural	shrills

Origin of shrill

From Late Middle English schrille, shirle, shrille (“of a sound: high-pitched, piercing; producing such a sound”), possibly from the earlier shil, schille (“loud, resounding; high-pitched”), from Old English sċill (“sonorous sounding”), of Germanic origin and probably ultimately imitative. The r in the word was introduced by analogy to Middle English skrīke, skrīken, scrēmen, possibly to avoid confusion with non-Anglian forms of schelle (modern English shell) where Old English sċill (“sonorous sounding”) and sċill (“shell”) existed. The word is cognate with Icelandic skella (“crash, bang, slam”), Low German schrell (“sharp in taste or tone”).

Words formed from shrill

Words that rhyme with shrill

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shrill

What does shrill mean?: Shrill means high-pitched and piercing.
What is shrill in Hindi?: Shrill in Hindi is पैना (painā). See Shrill meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shrill in a sentence?: Let winds be shrill, let waves roll high, / I fear not wave nor wind; / Yet marvel not, Sir Childe, that I / Am sorrowful in mind; […]
What part of speech is shrill?: Shrill can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce shrill?: Shrill is pronounced /ʃɹɪl/ (UK).

Words near shrill in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-shrill.ogg, En-au-shrill.ogg.

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