I have had family visiting over new year and the mornings have included the shrill excitement of a pre-school aged young girl. Alarm clocks optional! 

The word shrill comes from Middle English schrylle, shirle, likely from Old English scrallettan (to sound loudly) or scill ("sonorous"), with Germanic roots, possibly imitative of a piercing sound and mimicking the sound itself, and related to German schrill and Low German schrell, meaning piercing or sharp, and Icelandic skella.  The 'r' may have been added by analogy with other words like skrike (shriek) to differentiate it from scill (shell), and it entered English as an adjective and verb in the late 14th century to describe high-pitched, piercing sounds, with cognates suggesting a shared origin for sharp, loud noises. 

The word shrill was first used in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), in the Middle English period (1150-1500), with the specific date varying depending on the part of speech.  The OED's earliest evidence for the different forms of "shrill" are: Adverb: Circa 1330, in the text Gregorius, Adjective: Circa 1400, in the poem Cleanness, Verb: Before 1400, in the text Floris and Blauncheflur, and Noun: From 1591, in the writing of Edmund Spenser. 

Examples of "shrill" used in a sentence: 
"Rebecca's voice was shrill and tight." 
"Anna Maria was still arguing in shrill tones."
"When the disciples do answer, their voices are shrill and defensive." 
"Shrill voices on both sides of the Atlantic are advocating protectionism."
"You couldn't drive down the road without incurring their shrill warning cry." 
"Shrill cries and startled oaths flew up around us as pandemonium broke out." 

1 hour ago, drpaladin said:

Nails on a chalkboard so shrill your teeth ache.

I understand that chalkboards are a thing of the past and doubt any Gen Z or Gen Alpha would have experienced that teeth curdling sound.

I love street art and we should always encourage the Arts.

Just the facts:

SHRILL Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

SHRILL Synonyms: 73 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus