English

Noun

shrieve ‎(plural shrieves)

1. Obsolete form of sheriff.
   • 1591, unknown author, The Troublesome Reign of King John:

     Please it your Majesty, here is the shrieve of Northamptonshire, with certain persons that of late committed a riot, and have appealed to your Majesty beseeching your Highness for special cause to hear them.

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well:

     I know him: he was a botcher's 'prentice in Paris, from whence he was whipped for getting the shrieve's fool with child: a dumb innocent that could not say him nay.

Usage notes

• Also appears capitalised, particularly when used as a title.

Related terms

• shrieval
• shrievalty

Etymology 2

See shrive.

Verb

shrieve ‎(third-person singular simple present shrieves, present participle shrieving, simple past shrieved, past participle shrieved or shriven)

1. Obsolete form of shrive.
   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere:

     He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away

     The Albatross's blood.

   • 1808, Walter Scott, Marmion:

     The jealous churl hath deeply swore,

     That, if again he venture o’er,

     He shall shrieve penitent no more.

2. (obsolete) To question.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, 1869, Henry John Todd (editor), The Works of Edmund Spenser, page 243,

     But afterwards she gan him soft to shrieve,

     And wooe with fair intreatie, to disclose

     Which of the nymphes his heart so sore did mieve: