▪ I. shrike, n.1 Obs. or dial.
[f. shrike v. Cf. skrike n.]
= shriek n. (In first quot., a shrill note.)
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 346 Small briddes..With shrikes full shrille in the shire bowes. c 1450 Merlin i. 15 Whi made the childe this shrike? wilt thow slen it? a 1547 Surrey æneid ii. (1557) C j b, The palace within confounded was..with ruful shrikes and cryes. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. iii. 47 Loathsome smels, And shrikes like Mandrakes torne out of the earth. 1613 Heywood Silver Age ii. i, Acrisius heares their clamours and their shrikes [rhyme strikes]. 1651 Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year ii. ix. 109 The air became full of shrikes of the desolate mothers of Bethlehem for their dying Babes. |
▪ II. shrike, n.2
(ʃraɪk)
Also 6–7 shreek(e.
[app. representing OE. scr{iacu}c, scréc (glossing L. ‘turdus’), which was perhaps used generally for birds having shrill cries; shrike and shrike-cock are dial. names for the missel-thrush. Cf. shreitch, shrite.
ON. sólskr{iacu}kja, which has been compared, means ‘snowbunting’, not ‘shrike’.]
Any of the birds of the numerous species of the family Laniidæ, characterized by a strong hooked and toothed beak; the majority of them are insectivorous, but several species, as the (Great or European) Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitor, prey upon mice and small birds; = butcher-bird. b. Applied to similar birds of other families (e.g. Prionopidæ), e.g. cuckoo, drongo, swallow shrike.
Red-back(ed Shrike, Lanius collurio.
| 1544 Turner Avium Præcip. F 8, De Mollicipite..Anglicè a shrike, a nyn murder. 1598 Florio, Gazza sparuiera, a kind of lanaret hauke called a shreeke, or nine murther. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 87 Of the Europæan Rapacious birds it is the least... In English it is called a Shrike. 1776 Pennant Brit. Zool. II. 604 The Flusher, or red back Shrike, and the great Shrike, breeds with us. 1851 F. O. Morris Brit. Birds I. 229 Great Shrike. [Syn.] Grey Shrike. Great Grey Shrike. Ash-coloured Shrike. Greater Butcher bird. Murdering Pie. Shrike. Shreek. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. iv. iv, The Mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow spear'd by the shrike. 1860 G. Bennett Gatherings Natur. Austral. 283 The Australian Shrike or Butcher-bird, also called Rain-bird by the colonists (Vanga destructor). 1883 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 29 The Helmeted Wood Shrikes (Prionops). |
▪ III. shrike, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Also 4–5 schrike, schryke, 4–6 shryke.
[Parallel to scrike v. (see scr-); perhaps representing an OE. *scr{iacu}can (cf. shrike n.2) = Norw. skrika, Da. skrige.]
= shriek v. † Of birds: To pipe.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 181 Elch wimman..þan hie beð mid childe bistonden..shrike) and reuliche biginneð. c 1300 Pol. Songs (Camden) 158 Heo biginneth to shryke, ant scremeth anon. c 1400 Destr. Troy 12973 Shene briddes in shawes shriked full lowde. 1471 Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) II. 485 The ladies..shryked and cryed dolorously. 1530 Palsgr. 705/2 She shriked so loude that a man myght her her tenne houses of. 1576 Turberv. Venerie 238 [At rutting time] a Badgerd shriketh. 1593 Shakes. Rich II, iii. iii. 183 Night-Owls shrike. 1629 Gaule Holy Madn. 283 To shrinke and shrike, at euery push and pricke. 1676 Hobbes Iliad xxi. 15 Grievous 'twas to hear them groan and shrike. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss. 1895 Lakeland Gloss. |
Hence † ˈshriking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 382 As Rauenes qualm or shrykyng [v.r. schrychynge] of þese owlys. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 449/1 Schrykynge. 1530 Palsgr. 267/2 Schrikyng or roring out, escry. 1579 E. K. Gloss. to Spenser's Sheph. Cal. May 54 Piteous outcryes, and dreadfull shriking. 1583 Babington Commandm. 14 Christ..dooth crie vppon vs with shriking sounde. 1648 Gage West Ind. 89 Judging every cry, every howling & shriking as an alarm to my death. 1650 Howell Giraffi's Rev. Naples i. 70 Shrikings, and howlings, with horrid curses. |