Noah Webster
Shrill
SHRILL, adjective [Latin grillus.]
1. Sharp; acute; piercing; as sound; as a shrill voice; shrill echoes.
2. Uttering an acute sound; as the cock's shrill sounding throat; a shrill trumpet.
[NOTE. A shrill may be tremulous of trilling; but this circumstance is not essential it, although it seems to be of the root of trill.]
SHRILL, verb intransitive To utter an acute piercing sound.
Break we out pipes that shrill'd as loud as lark. Spenser.
SHRILL, verb transitive To cause to make a shrill sound.