the.com/squeal
the sound of a secret losing its grip and a piglet finding its voice
means To make a high, shrill cry — or, informally, to inform on someone to those in authority.
from An echoic word, born to imitate the very sound it names: that thin, piercing cry. It surfaces in Middle English as a cousin to 'squeak' and 'squall,' part of a noisy family of words that copy sharp sounds. The 'informer' sense — to squeal on someone — is a later slang twist, the idea being that a betrayer cries out and gives the game away, like a pig under pressure.
- piglet vocab
- Pigs make over 20 distinct sounds, squeals included
- snitch slang
- To squeal meant to inform on someone by the 1800s
- pure pitch
- High frequency that cuts straight through ambient noise
- delight reflex
- Joy and terror borrow the exact same sound
- brake duet
- Tires and worn pads squeal at frequencies above 1000 Hz
for instance
dolphins clicks and squeals — bottlenose dolphins in florida's indian river lagoon use squeals for echolocation and communication, recorded extensively by marine biologists since the 1980s