a. [ad. L. strīdentem, pr. pple. of stridĕre, to creak. Cf. F. strident.]
1. Making a harsh, grating or creaking noise; loud and harsh, shrill.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Strident, crashing or making a noise, creaking.
1721. Bailey.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, li. ‘Brava! brava!’ old Steyne’s strident voice was heard roaring over all the rest.
1860. Farrar, Orig. Lang., iv. 76. Strident consonants evidently formed from the hiss of certain serpents.
1875. H. James, R. Hudson, xxv. (1879), III. 231. His strident accent.
1905. J. B. Firth, Highw. & Byways Derbyshire, xxvi. 394. The rush and rattle of strident wheels.
2. transf. and fig.
1876. F. Harrison, Choice Bks. (1886), 413. All this is not to be disposed of by a somewhat strident scorn in the name of a somewhat mysterious gospel.
1907. Athenæum, 25 May, 641/1. This [picture] is free from the strident colour which he [W. L. Wyllie] has sometimes fallen into of late.
Hence Stridently adv.
1859. Boyd, Recreat. Country Parson (1862), 36. There lies the large blue quarto,… there the massive foolscap,… then the ivory stridently cuts it through.
a. 1894. Stevenson, St. Ives, xxvi. (1908), 194. The whole enclosure continuously and stridently resounded with the rain.
