從喉嚨出來的尖叫
最直接的一支：發出那個刺耳聲音的是活的喉嚨。人或動物一急、一怕、一興奮，聲音就會被推到又高又細的位置。
verb · B2
To shout or cry out in a very high, loud, sharp voice that hurts the ear, usually because you are angry, frightened, or very excited.
尖叫；尖聲喊
核心畫面
One picture can hold all of screech: a thin, high sound that . Something is being forced — a throat pushed past its comfortable range, rubber dragged across a road, metal turning on rusty metal — and what comes out is narrow, loud and hard to listen to. The word does not simply mean loud. It means the sound has an edge on it, and that edge is what makes people turn their heads or cover their ears.
screech 的各種用法，可以想成都從同一個畫面長出來：一個又細又高、會刮耳朵的聲音。有東西被硬逼著發聲——喉嚨拉…更多收起
screech 的各種用法，可以想成都從同一個畫面長出來：一個又細又高、會刮耳朵的聲音。有東西被硬逼著發聲——喉嚨拉到超過舒服的音域、輪胎被拖過路面、生鏽的金屬互相磨——出來的聲音就是細、響、刺耳。它講的不只是「大聲」，而是聲音上帶著一個尖角。也正是那個尖角，讓人回頭看，或伸手摀耳朵。From the word’s history
The word is imitative in origin: its Middle English ancestor skriken (and the Old Norse skríkja beside it) was itself an attempt to copy a high sharp cry. So the sound came first and the word was shaped to match it — which is why it stretches so easily from a person to an owl to a car tyre.
這個字本身就是「學聲音」造出來的：中古英語的 skriken、古北歐語的 skríkja，都是在模仿那種又高又尖的叫聲。先有聲音，字才照著捏出來。所以它從人跳到貓頭鷹、再跳到輪胎，一點都不勉強——只要聲音像，就能用同一個字。
Wiktionary entry for 'screech' (kaikki extract supplied in this evidence packet; source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1046348738:13912)
Two branches
硬物磨出來的刺耳聲
另一支把同一個聲音交給沒有喉嚨的東西。輪胎磨路面、金屬磨金屬，出來的音色跟尖叫很像，英文就直接借同一個字用。
verb · B2
If a vehicle or its wheels screech, they make a loud, sharp, high noise as the vehicle moves fast, turns hard, or stops suddenly.
（車輪）發出刺耳尖聲
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
screechnoun/skɹiːt͡ʃ/
- 1
A high-pitched strident or piercing sound, such as that between a moving object and any surface.
- 2
A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream.
- “Before he was a twel’month ould he had a mouth full o’ great teeth; his hands wor like ’s claws, and his legs wor no thicker nor the handle of a whip, and about as straight as a rapin’ hook; to make the matther worse, he had the gut uv a cormorant, and the whinge, and the yelp, and the screech, and the yowl, was never out of his mouth.”
- 3
Newfoundland rum.
- 4
A form of home-made rye whiskey made from used oak rye barrels from a distillery.
screechverb/skɹiːt͡ʃ/
- 1
To make such a sound.
- That the night owl should screech before the noonday sun, that the bat should wheel around the bad of beauty […]
- "Have you not met them?" "No, I have met nothing but three cormorants, which were sitting on a bit of drift-wood screeching."
- 2
To travel very fast, as if making the sound of a car that is driving too fast.
- You've got to admire their balls. Real Madrid screeched after them: an entire herd, powerful and co-ordinated, salivating and breathing hard, murder in their eyes. So Barcelona moved the ball on, away from them. Forced back, it was played into Víctor Valdés, the goalkeeper, who slotted it to Carles Puyol, who gave it back again.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。