English edit

Noun edit

screak (plural screaks)

  1. shriek; screech
    • 1898, Amanda Millie Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Boston[1]:
      She did not run against chairs nor move a stool so that the legs emitted a "screak" of agony, and she could sit still for an hour at a time if she had a book.

Verb edit

screak (third-person singular simple present screaks, present participle screaking, simple past and past participle screaked)

  1. shriek; screech
    • 1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc:
      The awfulest thing was the silence; there wasn't a sound but the screaking of the saddles, the measured tramplings, and the sneezing of the horses, afflicted by the smothering dust-clouds which they kicked up.
    • 1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 64:
      They walk together in silence while behind them a freight train chuffs and screaks through the crossing.
    • 1999 July 2, Richard Meltzer, “Vinyl Reckoning”, in Chicago Reader[2]:
      Which'll jar your bones, Jim!...sap your breath...distort your hearing for your own concrete thoughts 'til they screak like the muddled static of distant homily.
    • 2003 November 14, Jeff Huebner, “Coming Home”, in Chicago Reader[3]:
      He finally does the hit next to the factory, causing the birds to screak and batter their cages.

Anagrams edit