skrike

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English skriken, a borrowing from Old Norse skríkja (“to scream”) (compare Old English sċrīċ, sċrēċ > English shriek/screech), literally "bird with a shrill call," referring to a thrush, possibly imitative of its call. Attested from c 1573.

Verb

1. (British, regional) To cry, sob, cry out or yell; to scream. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   • Alan Garner, Red Shift

     It's not as if you're skriking brats.

Etymology 2

From Middle English skrike, scryke (also skryche, schryke, shryke). Cognate with Old Frisian skrichte, Middle Low German schrichte.

Noun

skrike (plural skrikes)

1. (UK, regional) A cry or scream.
   • c 1573, attested by J. Raine

     at what tyme the said Herrison wyfe gave a skrike.

   • 1824, Allan's Tynside Songs, p. 182

     Aw gav a skrike.

2. (UK, dialect) The missel thrush.

References

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press.
• A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, J. R. Clark Hall, 1984, University of Toronto Press.
• Journal of English and Germanic Philology: Volume 29, 1930, Univeristy of Illinois Press.
• 'Scric', Etymonline.com.

Anagrams

• Kikers, krieks, skriek

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Onomatopoeic (lydord)

Verb

skrike (imperative skrik, present tense skriker, passive skrikes, simple past skrek or skreik, past participle skreket, present participle skrikende)

1. to scream, shout, cry out
2. (of a crow) to caw

Related terms

• skrik (noun)

References

• “skrike” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

skrike (present tense skrik, past tense skreik, past participle skrike, present participle skrikande, imperative skrik)

1. Alternative form of skrika