From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtrilltrill1 /trɪl/ verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 SINGSOUNDto make a short repeated high sound birds trilling in the trees The phone trilled sharply.2 HIGH SOUND OR VOICEto say something in a high happy voice that sounds slightly false ‘Have a nice time, darling, ’ she trilled.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
trill• At five o'clock the phone set on the tailgate of the Range Rover trilled.• In the brush warblers and finches are trilling again; raspberries glisten; the gulls are laughing.• Two hours later I was woken by men whistling, clicking, trilling and hooting their music to the flocks.• The phone on Sam McCready's desk trilled at midday.• The bird had stopped tick-ticking and was trilling away cheerfully.• Johnson was reading a local newspaper he had bought at the Frankenwald service station when his phone trilled discreetly.• A mockingbird trilled from atop a telephone pole.• The telephones in Sly's office complex did not trill, they rang.trilltrill2 noun [countable] 1 technicalAPM a musical sound made by quickly moving between two notes2 HBBSOUNDa short repeated high sound the trill of blackbirdsExamples from the Corpus
trill• A trill of song from somewhere outside the trench.• From behind the curtain the tuning-up sounds, trumpet runs, and flute trills, were becoming more clamorous.• From within, I catch the trill of a Pogues song.Origin trill2 (1600-1700) Italian trillo, from trillare “to trill”, probably from Dutch trillen “to shake very quickly” 