screen
/ˈskɹiːn/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms screens screening screened skreen
- noun A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous. “a fire screen”
- noun (architecture) A dwarf wall or partition carried up to a certain height for separation and protection, as in a church, to separate the aisle from the choir, etc.
- noun A stand of trees or other plants that can block wind.
- noun (military, nautical) A military or nautical formation that blocks or separates; a collection of less-valuable vessels that travel with a more valuable one for the latter's protection.
- noun (figurative) A disguise; concealment.
- noun A mesh layer in a window or doorway that lets in fresh air but keeps out pests.
- noun (mining, quarrying) A frame supporting a mesh of bars or wires used to classify fragments of stone by size, allowing the passage of fragments whose a diameter is smaller than the distance between the bars or wires.
- noun (baseball) The protective netting which protects the audience from flying objects “Jones caught the foul up against the screen.”
- verb To filter by passing through a screen. “Mary screened the beans to remove the clumps of gravel.”
- verb (figurative, by extension) To filter. “Passenger baggage was screened by X-ray to look for weapons.”
- verb To shelter or conceal.
- verb To remove information, or censor intellectual material from viewing. To hide the facts. “The news report was screened because it accused the politician of wrongdoing.”
- verb (film, television) To present publicly (on the screen). “The news report will be screened at 11:00 tonight.”
- verb To fit with a screen. “We need to screen this porch. These bugs are driving me crazy.”
- verb (medicine) To examine patients or treat a sample in order to detect a chemical or a disease or to assess susceptibility to a disease.
- verb (molecular biology) To search chemical libraries by means of a computational technique in order to identify chemical compounds which would potentially bind to a given biological target such as a protein.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
pick silver screen projection screen blind CRT screen cover covert concealment filmdom screenland sieve screen door test screen out sort block out riddle shield
Etymology
From Middle English scren, screne (“windscreen, firescreen”), from Anglo-Norman escren (“firescreen, the tester of a bed”), Old French escren, escrein, escran (modern French écran (“screen”)), from Middle Dutch scherm, from Old Dutch skirm, from Proto-West Germanic *skirmi, from Proto-Germanic *skirmiz (“fur, shelter, covering, screen”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”).
Cognate with Dutch scherm (“screen”), German Schirm (“screen”). Doublet of scherm.
An alternative etymology derives Old French escren, escran from Old Dutch *scranc (“barrier”) (compare Middle Dutch schranc, schranke (“palisade, trellis, grid”), German Schrank (“cupboard, cabinet”), German Schranke (“fence”)), from Proto-West Germanic *skrank, from Proto-Germanic *skrankaz.
English surname, from Old French escrin (“jewel case”); also from the noun screen.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Anything that separates or cuts off inconvience, injury, or danger; that which shelters or conceals from view; a shield or protection; as, a fire screen.
- noun A dwarf wall or partition carried up to a certain height for separation and protection, as in a church, to separate the aisle from the choir, or the like.
- verb To provide with a shelter or means of concealment; to separate or cut off from inconvience, injury, or danger; to shelter; to protect; to protect by hiding; to conceal; as, fruits screened from cold winds by a forest or hill.
- verb To pass, as coal, gravel, ashes, etc., through a screen in order to separate the coarse from the fine, or the worthless from the valuable; to sift.
Etymology [OE. scren, OF. escrein, escran, F. écran, of uncertain origin; cf. G. schirm a screen, OHG. scrim, scern a protection, shield, or G. schragen a trestle, a stack of wood, or G. schranne a railing.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “screen”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details