different between creak vs screech

English

Alternative forms

• crik (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krak?n (“to crash, crack, creak”), related to Proto-Germanic *krak?n?, ultimately of imitative origin.

Compare also Old English cr?ccettan, cr?cettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kr?k, IPA^(key): /k?i?k/
• Homophone: creek
• Rhymes: -i?k

Noun

creak (plural creaks)

1. The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.

Translations

Verb

creak (third-person singular simple present creaks, present participle creaking, simple past and past participle creaked)

1. (intransitive) To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances.
   • 1856, Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), Gustave Flaubert (author), Madame Bovary, Part III, Chapter 10:

     Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.

   • 1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw:

     He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.

2. (transitive) To produce a creaking sound with.
   • a. 1941, Theodore Roethke, "On the Road to Woodlawn", in Open House (1941)

     I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses,

     The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To suffer from strain or old age.
   • 2002, Stanley Wells, Shakespeare Survey (volume 39, page 205)

     Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain.

   • 2007, Francis Pryor, Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History (page 232)

     The whole basis of feudalism, especially in the more intensively farmed champion arable landscapes of the Midlands, was starting to creak.

Derived terms

• creaky

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Acker, Crake, Kacer, acker, crake

English

Etymology

1602; altered with expressive vowel lengthening from earlier skrech (1577), variant of obsolete scritch, from Middle English skriken, shrichen, schrichen (1250), from Old English (attested as scriccettan) and Old Norse skríkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skr?kijan? (compare Icelandic skríkja, Old Saxon scric?n, Danish skrige, Swedish skrika), derivative of *skr?han? (compare Middle Dutch schriën, German schreien, Low German dial. schrien, schriegen), ultimately of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• enPR: skr?ch, IPA^(key): /sk?i?t?/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [sk?i?t?]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [sk?it?]
• Rhymes: -i?t?

Noun

screech (countable and uncountable, plural screeches)

1. A high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface.
2. A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, volume 3, chapter 6

     That the night owl should sreech before the noonday sun, that the bat should wheel around the bad of beauty [...]

3. (Newfoundlander, uncountable) Newfoundland rum.
4. A form of home-made rye whiskey made from used oak rye barrels from a distillery.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

screech (third-person singular simple present screeches, present participle screeching, simple past and past participle screeched)

1. To make such a sound.
2. (intransitive, figuratively) to travel very fast, as if making the sounds of brakes being released

Translations

Anagrams

• creches, crèches