banshee

howl like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been howling like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop howling like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!See also: banshee, howl, like

scream like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been screaming like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop screaming like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!See also: banshee, like, scream

shriek like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been shrieking like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop shrieking like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!See also: banshee, like, shriek

cry like a banshee

1. To sob in a very loud, hysterical manner. She's been up in her room crying like a banshee ever since the breakup. I cried like a banshee the day we had to go put my dog to sleep.2. To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been crying like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop crying like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!See also: banshee, cry, like

wail like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been wailing like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop wailing like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!See also: banshee, like, wail

wail like a banshee

Scream shrilly, as in Terrified, she wailed like a banshee. In Irish folklore, a banshee is a spirit in the form of a wailing woman whose appearance is an omen that one member of a family will die. The simile dates from the late 1800s. See also: banshee, like, wail

wail like a banshee, to

To scream shrilly. In Irish folklore, a “banshee” is a spirit in the form of a wailing woman who appears or is heard as a sign that one member of a family will soon die. The word appeared in English (from the Gaelic bean sidhe) in the second half of the eighteenth century. The simile dates from the late nineteenth century.See also: like, wail

banshee

(in Irish folklore) a female spirit whose wailing warns of impending death

Banshee

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

From the Irish bean sidhe and the Gaelic ban sith, meaning "woman of the fairies." A Banshee is a supernatural being in Irish and other Celtic folklore who screams or "keens," usually at night. This keening is supposedly a forecast of death in the home where it is heard. It is said that the Banshee only appears to, or is heard by, families of pure Irish descent or as Sir Walter Scott put it, "families of the pure Milesian stock, and never ascribed to any descendant of the proudest Norman or boldest Saxon."

The Banshee appears in or near the home during the hours of darkness and keens in an unknown language. She may remain there for a number of nights. Although the person who dies may be elsewhere at the time of death, the Banshee appears at the ancestral home.

Scott mentions a Scottish belief in a Banshee: "Several families of the Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to the distinction of an attendant spirit, who performed the office of the Irish banshie. Among them, however, the functions of this attendant genius, whose form and appearance differed in different cases, were not limited to announcing the dissolution of those whose days were numbered. The Highlanders contrived to exact from them other points of service, sometimes as warding off dangers of battle; at others, as guarding and protecting the infant heir through the dangers of childhood; and sometimes as condescending to interfere even in the sports of the chieftain."

Katharine Briggs describes the Banshee as "very pale, with long streaming hair and eyes fiery red from weeping. She wears a gray cloak over a green dress." According to other reports, however, she can appear as an old hag dressed in a winding sheet.

Peter Haining suggests that the Banshee is associated with three other spirit forms: Babd, the Irish goddess of battles; Morrigan, ancient Celtic goddess of fertility, war and magic; and the Scottish bean-nighe, an old woman who is seen washing blood-stained clothing at a stream, prophesying death in battle.

banshee

female specter, harbinger of death. [Irish and Welsh Myth.: Walsh Classical, 45]See: Death

banshee

spirit with one nostril, a large projecting front tooth, and webbed feet. [Irish Folklore: Briggs, 14]See: Monsters

banshee

Irish spirit who foretells death. [Irish Folklore: Briggs, 14–16]See: Prophecy

banshee

ban·shee

banshee

ban•shee

or ban•shie

banshee

banshee

howl like a banshee

scream like a banshee

shriek like a banshee

cry like a banshee

wail like a banshee

wail like a banshee

wail like a banshee, to

banshee

banshee

Banshee

banshee

banshee

banshee

BANSHEE

banshee

Synonyms for banshee

noun (Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death

Synonyms

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