Definition of "shrill" []

• High-pitched and piercing in tone or sound: the shrill wail of a siren. (adjective)
• Producing a sharp, high-pitched tone or sound: a shrill fife. (adjective)
• Sharp or keen to the senses; harshly vivid: shrill colors. (adjective)
• To utter in a shrill manner; scream. (verb-transitive)
• To produce a shrill cry or sound. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "PAGE 134.l. 13. _ivory shrill_, the shrill sound of the ivory horn. ll."
• "Harry Reid doesn't know what the term shrill means."
• "He sites what he calls the shrill voices of liberal-left journalists, or 'laptop bombadiers' that became the champions of forceful western intervention."