different between sing vs shriek

English

Etymology

From Middle English singen, from Old English singan, from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwan?, from Proto-Indo-European *seng??-. Cognate with German singen (“to sing”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?ng, IPA^(key): /s??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

sing (third-person singular simple present sings, present participle singing, simple past sang, past participle sung or (archaic) sungen)

1. (intransitive) To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.

2. (transitive) To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
3. (transitive) To soothe with singing.

4. (transitive, intransitive) Of birds, to vocalise:
   1. (ornithology) To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.
   2. (literary) To produce any type of melodious vocalisation.
5. (intransitive, slang) To confess under interrogation.
6. (intransitive) To make a small, shrill sound.
7. To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry.
   • 1709, Matthew Prior, Pleasure

     Bid her […] sing / Of human hope by cross event destroyed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

8. (intransitive) To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.

9. (ergative) To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung.
   • 1875, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (volume 118, page 685)

     No song sings well unless it is open-vowelled, and has the rhythmic stress on the vowels. Tennyson's songs, for instance, are not generally adapted to music.

Synonyms

• (confess under interrogation): See also Thesaurus:confess and Thesaurus:rat out

Derived terms

Related terms

• song

Translations

Noun

sing (plural sings)

1. The act, or event, of singing songs.
   • 2002, Martha Mizell Puckett, Hoyle B. Puckett, Memories of a Georgia Teacher: Fifty Years in the Classroom, page 198:

     Some of the young folks asked Mrs. Long could they have a sing at her home that Sunday afternoon; she readily agreed, telling them to come early, bring their songbooks, and have a good sing.

Derived terms

• singsong

See also

• singe

Anagrams

• IGNs, Ings, NGIs, gins, ings, nigs, sign, snig

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch zingen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??/

Verb

sing (present sing, present participle singende, past participle gesing)

1. to sing

Derived terms

• gesonge (verbal adjective)

German

Pronunciation

Verb

sing

1. singular imperative of singen

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from German. First attested in 1368.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??i??]
• Rhymes: -i??

Noun

sing (plural singek)

1. (archaic) cubit (a unit of linear measure, no longer in use, originally equal to the length of the forearm)

Declension

Derived terms

• singcsont

References

Further reading

• sing in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Iu Mien

Etymology

From Chinese ? (MC ?i??).

Noun

sing 

1. sound

Zou

Etymology 1

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thii?, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kja?. Cognates include Burmese ????? (hkyang:) and Chinese ? (ji?ng).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si???/

Noun

síng

1. ginger

Etymology 2

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thi?, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *si?. Cognates include Burmese ??? (sac) and Chinese ? (x?n).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si???/

Noun

síng

1. tree

References

• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 45

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