Definition of "shrill"

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, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, prologue], page 77, column 1

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: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], stanza XIII.4, page 11

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.

1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, page 118

"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.

1872, M[ary] E[lizabeth] Braddon, “A Dread Revelation”, in Charlotte’s Inheritance. A Novel (Harper’s Library of Select Novels; no. 311), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, Franklin Square, book VIII (A Fight against Time), page 105, column 1

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 minerals.

2010 October 14, Jacqueline Friedrich, “Son follows in late winemaker Didier Dagueneau’s storied footsteps”, in Los Angeles Times‎, archived from the original on 1 December 2017

The clerk had, I'm afraid, a shrew of a wife, shrill, vehement, and fluent.

1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In which Mr. Dangerfield Visits the Church of Chapelizod, and Zekiel Irons Goes A-fishing”, in The House by the Church-yard [...] In Three Volumes, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […]; republished as The House by the Church-yard: A Novel [...] Three Volumes in One, New York, N.Y.: Carleton, publisher, […] ; London: Tinsley & Co., 1866, page 115

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. Aegloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; republished as The Shepheardes Calender […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], 1586, 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, [Act V, scene iii]

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.An adjectival use.

1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Saturday; or, The Flights”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], page 56, lines 47–50

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] Newbery, […]; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, 1885, page 57

They, as a cloud of ſtarlings or of daws / Fly ſcreaming ſhrill, warn'd timely of the kite / Or hawk, devourers of the ſmaller kinds, / So they ſhrill—clamouring toward the fleet, / Haſted before Æneas and the might / Of Hector, nor the battle heeded more.

1791, Homer, W[illiam] Cowper, transl., “[The Iliad.] Book XVII.”, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], page 481, lines 913–918

[F]rom them rose / A cry that shiver'd to the tingling stars, / And, as it were one voice, an agony / Of lamentation, like a wind, that shrills / All night in a waste land, where no one comes, / Or hath come, since the making of the world.

1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], page 13

[H]e paused, while his hands clutched, and his voice shrilled with passion— [...]

1880 November 12, Lew[is] Wallace, chapter IV, in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], book fourth, page 195

As the guard's whistle shrilled the "right away," I made to join my companions in the train, but with a smile the driver, whose name was Abdul, bade me take the fireman's seat.

1942 July-August, Philip Spencer, “On the Footplate in Egypt”, in Railway Magazine, page 208

'Cause the owls only call out when something happens the rest of us can't understand. When they shrill, it's something terrible, [...]

2003, Paul Lathan, chapter 6, in The Cemetery Within, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 36

As she stumbles over scattered clothes, randomly kicked-off shoes, newspapers, and video games, she finally reaches the telephone, as it shrills out its cries to be picked up.

2010, Ray Jones, “The Night Before”, in The Suits: An Animated Way to Look at Family Life, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, page 3

Jesse Lingard, another substitute, was only eight yards out when Harry Maguire’s knock-down fell for him but it was a wild finish and [Gareth] Southgate still had his head in his hands when the final whistle shrilled.

2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 28 March 2018

[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, […], 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

Sonographic example of two consecutive loud shrills of a common marmoset, showing sound frequencies of harmonics reaching into the ultrasonic range.

2018, Jaco Bakker, Johannes A. M. Langermans, “Ultrasonic Components of Vocalizations in Marmosets”, in Stefan M. Brudzynski, editor, Handbook of Ultrasonic Vocalization: A Window into the Emotional Brain (Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience; 25), London, San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, part L (Ultrasonic Vocalization in Other Vertebrate Taxa), figure 49.1 caption, page 539, column 2