Other forms: screaming, screams, screamed
To scream is to let out a loud, high cry — fear, pain, or the drop on a rollercoaster. The noise from the top of the ride; a child who has found a spider in the bath.
You scream AT someone in anger and FOR something you need, so he screamed for help until his voice gave out. The noun is a scream, and screaming is the form you meet most. It also works for things that shout without a sound: a shirt that screams money, a kitchen that screams 1974. In older British slang a person can be a scream, meaning very funny indeed. Screaming blue murder is complaining as loudly as a human being can. Keep it apart from shout, which carries words — a scream is sound alone.
1verbscreamTo cry out loudly and high in fear, pain or excitement.
“She screamed when the door slammed behind her.”
2verbshoutTo shout something at someone in anger.
“He screamed at the referee for a full minute.”
3nounloudA loud, high cry.
“A scream came from somewhere down the corridor.”
4verbobviousTo make something obvious without saying it.
“The whole flat screams money.”
5nounfunnySomeone or something very funny, in informal use.
“Her father is a scream once he starts telling stories.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: shriek
Scream turns up in Middle English as scremen, alongside Middle Dutch scremen, to yell or shout, and Old Norse skræma, to terrify or scare. The neighbouring languages kept it too: Swedish skrämma, to frighten, Danish skræmme, to scare, West Frisian skrieme, to weep. It is a relative of shriek, and the whole family sounds a little like the noise it names.
Old Norse
skræma — to terrify; scare
Middle Dutch
scremen — to yell; shout
Middle English
scremen
English, today
scream
Middle English scremen, borrowed from or cognate with Middle Dutch scremen (“to yell; shout”) and Old Norse skræma (“to terrify; scare”); compare vls schreemen, zea schreême (“to shout; yell; cry”), Swedish skrämma (“to spook; frighten”), Danish skræmme (“to scare”), West Frisian skrieme (“to weep”). Compare also Swedish skräna (“to yell; shout; howl”), Dutch schreien (“to cry; weep”), German schreien (“to scream”). Related to shriek, skrike.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA