screech

noun

\ ˈskrēch

Definition of screech

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a high shrill piercing cry usually expressing pain or terror

2 : a sound resembling a screech

screech

verb

screeched; screeching; screeches

Definition of screech (Entry 2 of 2)

intransitive verb

1 : to utter a high shrill piercing cry : make an outcry usually in terror or pain

2 : to make a shrill high-pitched sound resembling a screech also : to move with such a sound the car screeched to a stop

transitive verb

: to utter with or as if with a screech

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Examples of screech in a Sentence

Noun

With a loud screech, she smashed the plate against the wall.

Verb

I screeched when I saw the mouse. He kept screeching at the children to pay attention. “You can't do this to me!” she screeched.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

The volume on the stereo grew louder, snapping Burl Ives's jolly croon into a scalding screech. — Anonymous, Good Housekeeping, "I Had to Choose Between Safety and My Mother," 21 Dec. 2018 The moments immediately after the touchdown of an aircraft, where typically there will be clouds of smoke and a piercing screech will be given off on the runway, seems somewhat dramatic. — Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times, "Looking to decorate your home? How about the nose of a Boeing 727 or a landing gear?," 29 July 2018 Read all about screech and Canada’s other attractions at http://tinyurl.com/ycfwdp8a. — Phil Marty, chicagotribune.com, "Adventures in vegan eating, a Canadian bucket list and more," 13 July 2018 The door swung open with a clunk and a screech, and cold clean air rushed into his lungs like the first breath after a storm. — Andrew Liptak, The Verge, "A transgender girl rises up against alien invaders in Rich Larson’s novel Annex," 8 July 2018 But the visualization shows the midsection buzz transforming into a more piercing screech to overcome the pump’s din. — Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times, "Near Noisy Oil Fields, Lovesick Birds Change Their Tunes," 13 Mar. 2018 Houses and buildings in Dogtown are wrapped in scaffolding, and the whirring screech of power saws every morning can substitute for an alarm clock. — Otis R. Taylor Jr., San Francisco Chronicle, "In Oakland, this is gentrification when it knocks on your door," 19 Apr. 2018 Marco Beltrami’s score is fairly traditional for the genre, combining mechanical screeches with strings and a deep threatening bass. — Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, "Sight and Silence," 11 Apr. 2018 The official sound of the 2018 Winter Olympics is quickly becoming the screech of emergency alerts on people's cellphones. — Author: Andrew Keh, Anchorage Daily News, "This is not a drill: Emergency cellphone alerts at the Winter Games become annoying," 14 Feb. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

What had been tightly packed racecars turns into a whirling, screeching heap of multi-million-dollar metal going sideways. — James Lynch, Popular Mechanics, "One Day at Daytona," 22 Mar. 2019 The sun had just set in Tehran when the car screeched up alongside me in the parking lot of the old Hilton Hotel. — Gerald F. Seib, WSJ, "A Regime Still Fighting the ‘Great Satan’," 1 Mar. 2019 Moments later, a gang of his friends make our porch and roof their jungle gym, screeching and swinging from every surface. — Virginia Van Zanten, Vogue, "Why Botswana Should Top Your Travel List in 2019," 27 Dec. 2018 But as the megalopolis grew, the zoo became surrounded by an urban sprawl of busy avenues with honking buses and screeching cars near the animal enclosures, where on a recent day a solitary lion spent his time chasing his tail in circles. — Luis Andres Henao, Fox News, "Giraffe, rhino deaths raise alarm at former Buenos Aires zoo," 22 Aug. 2018 Trailing 13-11, sophomore Joe Chamoun stuffed the Bombers twice in a row to tie it, screeching and pumping up the crowd with his arms after each point. — Josh Schafer, BostonGlobe.com, "Needham’s rally falls short vs. Westfield," 22 June 2018 The bird stopped screeching and the children came to the front door as a group, their three heads in a staggered row, each finding enough space to see. — Kathleen Volk Miller, New York Times, "A Future Without Him, Aided by Duct Tape," 23 Feb. 2018 But the whole program came screeching to a halt in March, when a malfunctioning Uber car crashed into Herzberg. — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, "Uber resumes testing self-driving cars nine months after deadly crash," 20 Dec. 2018 Authorities believe Green fled to an awaiting car because of accounts from neighbors who heard car tires screeching away moments after the shooting. — William Lee, chicagotribune.com, "No bail in June slaying in North Austin neighborhood," 8 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'screech.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.