1Give a long, loud, piercing cry or cries expressing excitement, great emotion, or pain.

1. 1.1reporting verb Cry something in a high-pitched, frenzied way.
   no object I ran to the house screaming for help

   with direct speech “Get out!” he screamed

   with object he screamed abuse into the phone

   Example sentencesExamples

   • She screamed a high pitch screech and turned to face the voice.
   • Her mother was screaming filthy obscenities and it was wrong of her to do that.
   • He is the perfect example of a teenager that is all but screaming aloud for help.
   • If most of your weekends are spent watching the footy and screaming instructions and abuse at the players on TV, then why not put your vast football knowledge to better use.
   • With the crowd screaming our last name like there was no tomorrow, a mother was proud.
   • He told me that it finally ended with his ex after she spent six hours screaming abuse in his face in their living room.
   • His burning impulse is to exit in sound and fury, screaming outright the profane secrets he merely hinted at in his earlier comments.
   • All three blogs wrote that Wilson later stormed down Senate halls, screaming obscenities.
   • A neighbour heard the women screaming for help, pleading with her son to stop.
   • When a woman saw two men arrive in a car outside a public house, she tried to scream a warning to the man she believed to be their target.
   • Halfway through Smyth is screaming what sounds like ‘Lenny Henry!’
   • It was now he started screaming, ‘The house is really on fire. Get anything you can and get out!’
   • Mila's solace was then disrupted when she heard a group of people from the crowd scream her name.
   • Three people were down the hall, and a girl was screaming for help.
   • A nurse came rushing in, and upon seeing my anger, screamed for a doctor.
   • For a moment it sounded like a woman screaming for help.
   • Blaze ran into the house, screaming something about telling Auri, while Ariella just stood there silently.
   • There are the odd occasions where they shout and scream abuse and are taken off to Westlea Police Station.
   • As I wrestled with her on the pavement she screamed abuse in my face and tried to kick Paul.
   • He was driven to Harrogate police station screaming abuse throughout the journey.

   Synonyms

   shriek, screech, yell, howl, shout, bellow, bawl, cry out, call out, yawp, yelp, squeal, wail, squawk, squall, caterwaul, whoop
2. 1.2 Urgently and vociferously call attention to one's views or feelings, especially ones of anger or distress.
   with clause his supporters scream that he is being done an injustice

   figurative the creative side of me is screaming out for attention

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Meanwhile they screamed, ‘Why do French film-makers demand real sex?’
   • Then there were the morning newspaper headlines which had screamed of yet another move to entice the Old Firm south.
   • At some point, though, our inner lives may scream for our attention, and this can come as a complete surprise.
   • The press-people are screaming for more information.
   • Whether I disciplined him or ignored him, his actions would cause Kanisha to scream like an air-raid siren.
   • The ambulance instantly ground to a halt and the driver leaned out of his window and screamed for Patrick to move out of the way.
   • It's easy to jump up and down and scream about a move like this, but it addresses the symptom, not the underlying question.
   • One of my earliest childhood memories is of my little sister screaming, ‘Move out of the way, big back!’
   • A thousand questions are screaming for attention at the back of my skull, and it's hard ignoring them all.
   • Your training partner is screaming for you to move the bar an inch, half of an inch - anything to prove you're still alive, but your strength is all gone.
   • The organisation literally yells and screams about how others ‘kill animals’ but this is how they operate?
   • A small child in the back room screams for attention, waking another child in the cradle in the far side of the living room.
   • ‘The last he saw Harry, a fireman was screaming at him to get out,’ said his brother-in-law.
   • Sarah woke to the sound of her mother screaming at her again.
   • My brain was screaming at me to move away as I walked towards the pool.
   • I hadn't realized he was screaming at me to move, until he hit me.
   • Her naked pain screams from the pages of the book.
   • If so, there are three crucial issues that scream for immediate attention and carry the least political risk for him.
   • It's his favorite move, and history screams that it'll hurt the campaign if he insists on it.
   • The younger of the two finally regained her bearing and stood up, ready to indignantly scream at her sister.
3. 1.3 Make a loud, high-pitched sound.
   sirens were screaming from all over the city

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The loud sirens screamed through the quiet night lighting up everything in its path.
   • When Hannah opened her eyes, she found herself lying on a stretcher, with sirens screaming loudly in her ears.
   • They won't then send an ambulance with sirens screaming and bells ringing and that sort of thing.
   • There are firetrucks and ambulances everywhere, sirens screaming.
   • They only stop kissing as their friend pulls them apart due to the police sirens screaming loudly a few streets away.
   • To my surprise the ambulance siren screamed to life and the vehicle departed heading east to the highway.
   • Police cars start arriving at the docks with lights flashing and sirens screaming, as irate ferry workers haul a body out of the water.
   • Traffic became grid-locked and sirens screamed as fire engines and ambulances tried to negotiate a way through the chaos.
   • The car followed, lights flashing and sirens screaming.
   • A loud piercing alarm began screaming throughout the vast and dark room.
   • Thankfully, the EMS was located just around the corner, their approaching sirens screaming.
   • As we were leaving the scene, we passed at least four fire trucks heading towards the park, sirens screaming.
   • I had thought they were so cool wearing those yellow jackets and red hats, riding around on big red trucks with sirens screaming.
   • Following a minor road accident, the tourist was rushed by paramedics, all sirens screaming, to a local hospital.
   • Ambulance sirens screamed as if enraged at the sight of a Baghdad car bombing.
   • A steady stream of ambulances was coming out of the school drive, all with lights flashing and sirens screaming into the leaden sky.
   • The sirens screamed even louder as the ambulance had arrived.
   • The drone of aircraft propellers and thump of helicopter rotors made way for screaming auto engines and squealing tyres.
   • When the air raid sirens screamed, they left in their apartment building scrambled for the cellar.
   • The sirens of an ambulance screamed on the way to the hospital, alerting everyone that a tragedy had occurred.
4. 1.4 Move very rapidly with or as if with a loud, high-pitched sound.
   a shell screamed overhead

   Example sentencesExamples

   • All the while, motorbikes were screaming past us between the two lanes of traffic.
   • It was a bigger bike, a 125 Yamaha, and it screamed past me in a flash of white and blue two-stroke smoke.
   • Mike hit the siren and they screamed around the corner.
   • The ambulance screamed past lighting my face in alternate colours as I trudged up William Street.
   • There were no bells sounding, no fireworks screaming through the sky, and no audience to clap and cheer us on.
   • He cut inside and his left-foot volley from just inside the box screamed past Niemi.
   • His ship was hit and destroyed as a Kratch ship screamed past the squadron.
   • The young Spaniard swung at it and sent the ball screaming past the helpless Gianluigi Buffon and into the left-hand side of the Juve goal.
   • Police vessels were still screaming past him, as well as lifters and medi-cars.
   • Overhead, salvo after salvo of heavy shells screamed through the sky from Allied warships pounding German positions.
   • As the bullets went screaming past the bodies, four drones opened fire on them.
   • A hand yanked him backwards as a car went screaming past him, the driver angrily blaring his horn at him.
   • Suddenly he heard the whining sound of the lead balls, like so many hornets screaming past his ears.
   • Epsom grabbed the winner two minutes from time when a midfield ball dropped to Shoefield, whose shot screamed past Jones into the net.
   • He launched himself into a spectacular overhead kick that screamed past Walker into the Walsall net.
   • Samuel crossed and Solano's audacious volley screamed just past the post.

1A long, loud, piercing cry expressing extreme emotion or pain.

1. 1.1 A high-pitched cry made by an animal.
   the screams of the seagulls

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He grabbed it around the neck and the animal let out a scream of fear.
   • A low rumbling and high-pitched scream of an animal came from somewhere out in the fog.
   • Alain cupped his ears as the creature's high pitched scream shattered every window pane in the room.
2. 1.2 A loud, piercing sound.
   the scream of a falling bomb

   Example sentencesExamples

   • More than 700 alarms, which emit a high-pitched 130 decibel scream, have been sold in a four-day frenzy.
   • The bell resounded at its high-pitch scream and last-minute stragglers rushed in.
   • From the hallway, the high-pitched screams of the heart monitor could be clearly heard and it resonated in Lucas' ears.
   • Then the world was reduced to a maddening thrum frequently pierced by the high-pitched scream of generators.
   • They weren't really alarms; they were more like high-pitched whistles or screams.
3. 1.3informal in singular An irresistibly funny person, thing, or situation.
   the movie's a scream

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Some of the perfunctory descriptions they offer of the movies they sell on DVD are a scream.
   • According to my sources, the movie, titled In The Closet, is a real scream.

   Synonyms

   laugh

   wit, hoot, comedian, comic, entertainer, joker, clown, buffoon