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Hiss vs Shriek - What's the difference?

hiss | shriek | Related terms |

Hiss is a related term of shriek.


As nouns the difference between hiss and shriek

is that hiss is a high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc while shriek is a sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

As verbs the difference between hiss and shriek

is that hiss is to make a hissing sound while shriek is to utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.

hiss

English

Noun

(es)
  • A high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.
  • An expression of disapproval made to sound like the noise of a snake.

    • Verb

  • To make a hissing sound.
    • As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.
    The arrow hissed through the air.
  • * Wordsworth
    • Shod with steel, / We hissed along the polished ice.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 14 , author=John Elkington , title=John Elkington , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=It turns out that the driver of the red Ferrari that caused the crash wasn't, as I first guessed, a youngster, but a 60-year-old. Clearly, he had energy to spare, which was more than could be said about a panel I listened to around the same time as the crash. Indeed, someone hissed in my ear during a First Magazine awards ceremony in London's imposing Marlborough House on 7 December: "What we need is more old white men on the stage."}}
  • To condemn or express contempt for by hissing.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 36
    • The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee.
  • * Shakespeare
    • if the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them
  • To utter with a hissing sound.
  • * Tennyson
    • the long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise

    shriek

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
  • * Dryden
    • Shrieks , clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 5
    • Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek ?
  • (UK) (slang) An exclamation mark.

    • Verb

  • To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.
  • * Shakespeare
    • It was the owl that shrieked .
  • * Dryden
    • At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.
  • To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
  • * Spenser
    • The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.
  • * Moore
    • She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

    Anagrams

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