screak

screak (plural screaks)

1. shriek; screech
   • 1898, Amanda Millie Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Boston‎:

     She did not run against chairs nor move a stool so that the legs emitted a "screak" of agony, and she could sit still for an hour at a time if she had a book.

screak (third-person singular simple present screaks, present participle screaking, simple past and past participle screaked)

1. shriek; screech
   • 1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc:

     The awfulest thing was the silence; there wasn't a sound but the screaking of the saddles, the measured tramplings, and the sneezing of the horses, afflicted by the smothering dust-clouds which they kicked up.

   • 1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 64:

     They walk together in silence while behind them a freight train chuffs and screaks through the crossing.

   • 1999 July 2, Richard Meltzer, “Vinyl Reckoning”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     Which'll jar your bones, Jim!...sap your breath...distort your hearing for your own concrete thoughts 'til they screak like the muddled static of distant homily.

   • 2003 November 14, Jeff Huebner, “Coming Home”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     He finally does the hit next to the factory, causing the birds to screak and batter their cages.

• ackers, crakes, creaks, sacker