How to Use shriek in a Sentence

shriek

1 of 2 verb
Definition of shrieknext
Synonyms for shrieknext
  • The birds were shrieking in the trees.
  • She shrieked when she saw a mouse.
  • The girls who had been ordered into the street sobbed and shrieked and begged.
    — James Karst, NOLA.com, 1 Oct. 2017
  • As the bats emerged, hawks shrieked and dove into the swarm to catch dinner.
    — Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2019
  • Navratilova shrieked with the thrill of it like a little girl.
    — Sally Jenkins, Anchorage Daily News, 3 July 2023
  • Bells chimed, whistles shrieked, sirens moaned, planes flew low over the city.
    — Stephen Fried, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
  • Then, things start to go awry, as a green, shrieking light emanates from the ground.
    — Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY, 11 Dec. 2019
  • Wind was shrieking past her home in Lahaina, a beach town on the west coast of Maui.
    — Jon Schuppe, NBC News, 19 Sep. 2023
  • His 6-month-old boy is shrieking in the room next door, contributing to the whistling din.
    — Jennifer Senior, New York Times, 20 June 2017
  • The sky is a sheet of blue, a breeze wraps us with clean air, a sandpiper mom shrieks over her hatchlings.
    — Ned Rozell, Alaska Dispatch News, 15 July 2017
  • The shock of the discovery led the audience to shriek in unison.
    — Natalia Winkelman, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Jan. 2023
  • That's the sound of every Sterek-shipper on earth shrieking in pain.
    — Noelle Devoe, Seventeen, 12 Mar. 2015
  • George loved his first ride–he was led around a paddock on a rein and shrieked with delight.
    — Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 23 Aug. 2018
  • The grieving mother starts to shriek and flail in the pew; Cherizier towels off his head.
    — Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, 26 Nov. 2023
  • On a steamy late afternoon this week, dozens of campers splashed and shrieked in a swimming pool.
    — Jonathan M. Pitts, baltimoresun.com, 23 June 2017
  • When the bus pulled up to pick up dozens of teenagers from the Watts Empowerment Center, the youths shrieked with joy.
    — Brennon Dixson, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Someone shrieked with laughter far too close to Yale’s ear.
    — Rebecca Makkai, chicagotribune.com, 21 May 2018
  • Eevee, all dimples and blonde curls and large blue eyes, giggled and shrieked in delight.
    — Silvia Foster-Frau, San Antonio Express-News, 23 Dec. 2017
  • Not even the shrieking wind could drown out the screams of Jamal’s passengers.
    — Kristen Gelineau, BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2023
  • When the call finally came, his wife Katie shrieked in delight.
    — Scott Springer, The Enquirer, 22 June 2023
  • Then the younger women began to shriek like a celebrity had appeared in their midst.
    — Ann Doss Helms, charlotteobserver, 28 Feb. 2018
  • The player can then guide that light toward the shadowy monster in the distance while Kay shrieks in agony.
    — Washington Post, 11 July 2019
  • Opponents may shriek, but the crucial votes will be there.
    — Orange County Register, 22 Jan. 2017
  • With so many bodies crammed together, the room had grown sweaty, but the news prompted the crowd to shriek and holler, fists punching the air.
    — Jennifer Gonnerman, The New Yorker, 26 June 2019
  • Kershaw turned, squatted and shrieked in reaction to the pitch.
    — Andrew Baggarly, The Mercury News, 1 May 2017
  • When she was patted down, the woman shrieked even louder.
    — cleveland.com, 12 July 2019
  • There was one guy that stood this close to his face for 10 minutes shrieking into his face.
    — WSJ, 14 May 2017
  • Tires don’t shriek when somebody brakes to avoid an opossum transfixed by headlights in the middle of the road.
    — Gena Steffens, Smithsonian, 11 July 2019
  • Momen’s daughters — Malak, 15, and Noreen, 13 — shrieked when the blast shook their house and a bright flash illuminated the dark sky.
    — Hannah Allam, Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2023
  • The first word spoken in the play — shrieked, in fact — is an unprintable expletive for female genitalia favored by the Brits.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 28 Jan. 2024
Advertisement

shriek

2 of 2 noun
  • Owls were on the hunt, and their shrieks could be heard in the tree canopy high above.
    — Ellen Barry, New York Times, 21 July 2019
  • The sounds mingle with the shrieks and whoops of riders.
    — Aaron Randle, New York Times, 28 Jan. 2020
  • That’s when the thing that couldn’t have been a shriek happened.
    — Murr Brewster, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Jan. 2023
  • The cows make her shriek, the way that city rats might alarm a country child.
    — New York Times, 28 Sep. 2021
  • They are replaced with shrieks of blue jays and the white-noise rustle of the wind through the leaves.
    — Adrian Higgins, idahostatesman, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Back on stage, Close shrieks about midway through the first act.
    — Kate Branch, Vogue, 16 Nov. 2018
  • One of the kids notices the rapper sitting next to her, and shrieks.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 22 Feb. 2018
  • Brunson joked as a shriek can be heard in the background.
    — Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, 28 Oct. 2019
  • The noises from above were atrocious: blasts of fire, grunts of pain, shrieks of rage.
    — cleveland, 19 Nov. 2019
  • The neurons give off a faint shriek as each one expires.
    — John E. McIntyre, baltimoresun.com, 12 May 2018
  • The shell sailed off toward the Russians with a metallic shriek.
    — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2022
  • In fact, they’ve been used for decades to produce the unbearable shriek of a smoke alarm.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 11 Feb. 2024
  • Or, the bursts might be the death shrieks of stars collapsing into black holes.
    — Mark Strauss, National Geographic, 4 Jan. 2017
  • Nick teased at the end of the show the band would return in September, which was met with sky-high shrieks.
    — Lyndsey Havens, Billboard, 26 Apr. 2023
  • Music began to blare through the speakers to our left, and my eardrums rang with the shrieks of other girls in the crowd.
    — Deena Elgenaidi, Longreads, 7 Jan. 2020
  • However, in the Z06, there's a trick that should get more of its shriek into the cabin.
    — Dave Vanderwerp, Car and Driver, 26 Oct. 2021
  • But no recorded sound can match the hair-raising shriek of a V-8 at full throttle.
    — Star Tribune, 22 Jan. 2021
  • The Weeknd and hear every detail without having to escape the painful shrieks of the crowd around you.
    — Meg Vázquez, GQ, 19 June 2017
  • As doctors inserted an IV into the boy, the man stood up in tears and let out a shriek.
    — Yaqoob Akbary, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Snowballs arced through the air, followed by shrieks and laughter.
    — Washington Post, 26 Dec. 2019
  • When the lights cut, the stage turned red and a giant skull with golden eyes lit up the screen behind the stage, the shrieks were deafening.
    — Holly Gleason, Variety, 2 June 2023
  • Gummi Ben's shrieks are legendary and make the magic of the moment even more special for fans around the world.
    — SI.com, 16 June 2018
  • Some people on the sidewalk strolled past without a second glance, some with a shriek.
    — New York Times, 23 Oct. 2020
  • The playful shrieks of children on their lunch break filter through from a nearby school.
    — Jack Moore, Newsweek, 6 June 2017
  • The howls and shrieks come from the basement where Toby wields a submachine gun to kill off rivals.
    — Betsy Morris, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2018
  • Then the engine froze, and the car made this horrible metal-on-metal shriek.
    — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 28 May 2019
  • When the final gets underway, the Federer caps and the Swiss flags will be there, but so too will the Argentine flags, the olés, and the shrieks, Delpo!
    — Nick Pachelli, Esquire, 18 Mar. 2018
  • The sound of rapid gunfire mixed with shrieks and shouts came through, clear and unrelenting, on my radio.
    — David Brown, Esquire, 9 June 2017
  • The cry rose with my speed to a shriek: while the air’s coldness streamed like two jets of iced water into my dissolving eyes.
    — Viju Mathew, Robb Report, 1 Mar. 2021
  • In one video appearing to show an outpatient clinic of Al-Shifa on Friday, a young girl covered in blood shrieks with her hands held up to the sky.
    — Josh Lederman, NBC News, 10 Nov. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shriek.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: