different between screech vs whine

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English whynen, hwinen, whinen, from Old English hw?nan (“to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hw?nan, from Proto-Germanic *hw?nan?, from Proto-Indo-European *?wey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with Old Norse hvína, whence Icelandic hvína, Norwegian hvine, Swedish vina, and Danish hvine.

Despite the strong similarity in sound and meaning, not related with German weinen, Dutch wenen, from Proto-Germanic *wain?n?.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?n, IPA^(key): /wa?n/, [?a??n], [????n], [?ä?n], [??e?n]
• (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hw?n, IPA^(key): /?a?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n
• Homophone: wine (accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whine (plural whines)

1. A long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
2. A complaint or criticism.

Translations

Verb

whine (third-person singular simple present whines, present participle whining, simple past and past participle whined)

1. (intransitive) To utter a high-pitched cry.
2. (intransitive) To make a sound resembling such a cry.

   The jet engines whined at take off.

3. (intransitive) To complain or protest with a whine or as if with a whine.
4. (intransitive) To move with a whining sound.

5. (transitive) To utter with the sound of a whine.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:complain

Translations

Middle English

Verb

whine

1. Alternative form of whynen