banshee
/banˈʃiː
/ /ˈbanʃiː /noun
(In Irish legend) a female spirit whose wailing warns of a death in a house: the little girl dropped her ice cream and began to howl like a banshee [as modifier]: a horrible banshee wail...
- The good folk of Ireland quail in their beds when they hear the banshee wail of the Irish Postie.
- Harry and Dolly have been in and out like Swiss cuckoos, demanding I open the door the instant the rain has stopped and the wind dropped, then wailing like banshees when things got bad again.
- I croaked, woken from my recurrent dream of loading reams of information onto the computer, by a banshee wail that went on and on, somewhere in the very near vicinity.
Origin
Late 17th century: from Irish bean sídhe, from Old Irish ben síde 'woman of the fairies'.
A banshee in Irish legend is a female spirit who wails a warning of an imminent death in a house; the word is ultimately from Old Irish ben síde ‘woman of the fairies’.