screechern.
/ˈskriːtʃə/, U.S. /ˈskritʃər/ 1. A person who or thing which screeches; a person who utters something in a loud, harsh, piercing voice.
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the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > cry or shout (loudness) > cry of emotion or pain > [noun] > scream or shriek > person
wrawlerc1440
screaker1549
shreamer1573
screecher1585
squaller1688
shrieker1708
screamer1712
squealer1864
skriker1891
1585 T. Rogers Eng. Creede: 1st Pt. Pref. sig. *.iijv Iudge in the feare of God, whether..Papists are to be cherished as good catholique Christians..as the Screecher would insinuate.
1746 Old Eng. 27 Dec. He seem'd rather to scream than plead, and from thence was call'd Orator Strix, or the Caledonian Screecher.
1834 H. Mayhew Wandering Minstrel i. ii. 18 Mrs. C. There's the Wandering Minstrel!—oh, the dear melodious creature. Jem B. She says I'm a hodious screecher.
1869 J. Burroughs in Galaxy Mag. Aug. 171 The Fly-catchers..are not properly Songsters, but are classed by some writers as Screechers.
1884 St. James's Gaz. 25 Jan. 6/2 They are as unpatriotic in their way as screechers about Bulgarian atrocities.
1908 Academy 11 July 27/2 These screechers are beginning to learn that hysterics are of little use where argument is concerned.
1911 Daily Mirror 9 May 5/3 The newest road-clearer is no longer a hooter or horn or buzzer or screecher.
2014 Herald Sun (Austral.) (Nexis) 25 Jan. 81 After many a year we have a women's tennis final worth watching with the top three grunters, screamers and screechers gone.
2. regional. Any of various birds having a harsh, high-pitched call, as the swift ( Apus apus), the barn owl ( Tyto alba), and the American screech owl ( Megascops asio); (in Guyana) a parrot, the orange-winged amazon ( Amazona amazonia). Cf. screech n.1 2.
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1848 Zoologist 6 2290 The common swift is in G[loucestershire] a ‘screecher’.
1849 Zoologist 7 2393 The ‘screecher’ I take to be the Caspian or gull-billed tern.
1890 Ornithologists' & Oologists' Semi-Ann. 2 27 With the hope of finding a nest of a ‘Zebra’ Woodpecker..or possibly that of the Screecher, (Megascops asio) I was closely scanning every old willow.
1900 W. H. Hudson Nature in Downland x. 203 Talking of swifts he said, ‘They screechers be curious birds: did you ever hear, zur, that they be up flying about all night and come back in the marning?’
1921 J. J. Quelch in C. Chubb Birds Brit. Guiana II. p. xxxix Of the parrots, one of the Roraima species is the screecher or orange-cheeked amazon.
1973 Times 17 Feb. 14/7 It is natural to substitute the name of ‘screecher’ for the now uncommon barn owl and ‘hooter’ for the tawny.
2004 B. Singh Birds Guyana vi. 77 (heading) Orange-winged Parrot. Amazona amazonica. Local Name: Screecher.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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