different between shriek vs expletive

English

Alternative forms

• shreek (obsolete)

Etymology

From obsolete shrick (1567), shreke, variants of earier screak, skricke (bef. 1500), from Middle English scrycke, from a Scandinavian language (compare Swedish skrika, Icelandic skríkja), from Proto-Germanic *skr?kijan?, *skrik- (compare English screech). More at screech.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Noun

shriek (plural shrieks)

1. A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

   • 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?

2. (Britain, slang) An exclamation mark.

Translations

Verb

shriek (third-person singular simple present shrieks, present participle shrieking, simple past and past participle shrieked)

1. (intransitive) 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.
   • At this she shriek'd aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.
2. (transitive) To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
   • 1817, Thomas Moore, Lalla-Rookh

     She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

Derived terms

• ashriek

Translations

Anagrams

• Ihrkes, hikers, shrike

English

Etymology

From Late Latin expl?t?vus (“serving to fill out”), from Latin expl?tus, the perfect passive participle of exple? (“fill out”), itself from ex (“out, completely”) + *ple? (“fill”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?spli?t?v/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??kspl?t?v/

Adjective

expletive (comparative more expletive, superlative most expletive)

1. Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.

   Synonym: expletory
2. Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).

Translations

Noun

expletive (plural expletives)

1. A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.

   Synonyms: swear word, oath

2. (linguistics) A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
3. (linguistics) A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning.

   Synonym: intensifier

Derived terms

• expletive deleted

Translations

Further reading

• expletive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967