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Shrill vs Hiss - What's the difference?

shrill | hiss |

As verbs the difference between shrill and hiss

is that shrill is to make a shrill noise while hiss is to make a hissing sound.

As nouns the difference between shrill and hiss

is that shrill is a shrill sound while hiss is a high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.

As an adjective shrill

is high-pitched and piercing.

shrill

English

Adjective

(er)
  • High-pitched and piercing.
    • She spoke in a shrill voice.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give / To sounds confused.
  • * Byron
    • Let winds be shrill , let waves roll high.
  • Sharp or keen to the senses.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a shrill noise.
  • * Spenser
    • Break we our pipes, that shrill'd loud as lark.
  • * Goldsmith
    • No sounds were heard but of the shrilling cock.
  • * L. Wallace
    • His voice shrilled with passion.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A shrill sound.
    • (Spenser)

    hiss

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • A high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.
  • An expression of disapproval made to sound like the noise of a snake.

    • Verb

  • To make a hissing sound.
    • As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.
    The arrow hissed through the air.
  • * Wordsworth
    • Shod with steel, / We hissed along the polished ice.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 14 , author=John Elkington , title=John Elkington , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=It turns out that the driver of the red Ferrari that caused the crash wasn't, as I first guessed, a youngster, but a 60-year-old. Clearly, he had energy to spare, which was more than could be said about a panel I listened to around the same time as the crash. Indeed, someone hissed in my ear during a First Magazine awards ceremony in London's imposing Marlborough House on 7 December: "What we need is more old white men on the stage."}}
  • To condemn or express contempt for by hissing.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 36
    • The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee.
  • * Shakespeare
    • if the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them
  • To utter with a hissing sound.
  • * Tennyson
    • the long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise