shrill
1
5.7
- adjective
- /ʃrɪl/
:
chillón
- Thrum of beast, depressed branch, blackbirds, shrill sun, saturated days.
Examples
-
"An admission first: I find the two smaller pieces painfully shrill and merely provocative.
Academic text (1997) -
Like Mr. Zapiski's shrill tale of the treatment of prisoners by the tyrant Phalaris: roasting them alive inside that huge bronze bull.
Fiction book (1997) -
But then it turned into this, like, shrill.
-
When I heard from behind me the shrill Glee of a promise kept, I turned to face the altar.
-
The top end brightness is not as shrill as it was, especially on like that is a little more tamed it seems.
-
And then he hears another voice, not shrill, but clear, luminous, ascendant.
Fiction book (1996) -
Nolde himself explained that in his painting, "the cries appeared as shrill yellows, the hooting of owls in deep violet tones" (quoted in Haftmann 1965:20).
Academic text (1994) -
The flowers were painted in a shrill color that clashed with the surrounding greenery.
-
They decided to decorate the room in a shrill shade of yellow that was almost blinding.
-
The artist used a shrill hue on the canvas, making the painting overly gaudy and distracting.
Synonyms
51
1.8
Too bright and showy in a way that looks bad
22
5.5
Very bright and showy in a way that looks bad
1
4.5
Very bright and loud in appearance that attracts attention
Bright and a little showy in appearance
Antonyms
How Garish
Surface Forms
Etymology
Shrill was first used for sounds (think of a shriek) and later used for colors by the same idea of something that feels 'loud' or 'harsh' to the senses, so a shrill color is overly bright and unpleasant.