banshee

cry like a banshee

1. To sob in a very loud, hysterical manner. She's been up in her room crying like a banshee ever since the breakup. I cried like a banshee the day we had to go put my dog to sleep.

2. To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been crying like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop crying like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!

See also: banshee, cry, like

howl like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been howling like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop howling like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!

See also: banshee, howl, like

scream like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been screaming like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop screaming like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!

See also: banshee, like, scream

shriek like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been shrieking like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop shrieking like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!

See also: banshee, like, shriek

wail like a banshee

To scream, howl, or screech in a very loud, high-pitched, and unsettling manner. Some animal has been wailing like a banshee in the alleyway all night long. Kids, stop wailing like a banshees back there! I need to focus on driving and I can barely hear myself think!

See also: banshee, like, wail

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

wail like a banshee

Scream shrilly, as in Terrified, she wailed like a banshee. In Irish folklore, a banshee is a spirit in the form of a wailing woman whose appearance is an omen that one member of a family will die. The simile dates from the late 1800s.

See also: banshee, like, wail

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wail like a banshee, to

To scream shrilly. In Irish folklore, a “banshee” is a spirit in the form of a wailing woman who appears or is heard as a sign that one member of a family will soon die. The word appeared in English (from the Gaelic bean sidhe) in the second half of the eighteenth century. The simile dates from the late nineteenth century.

See also: like, to, wail

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer