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screed

Pronunciation: /skɹiːd/

The English word “screed” has 19 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A piece of writing (such as an article, letter, or list) or a speech, especially if long.
  2. A speech or piece of writing which contains angry and extended criticism.
  3. Chiefly in the plural form screeds: a large quantity.
  4. A tool, usually a long strip of wood or other material, placed on a floor to be covered with concrete, a wall to be plastered, etc., as a guide for producing a smooth, flat surface.
  5. A tool such as a long strip of wood or other material which is drawn over a wet layer of concrete, plaster, etc., to make it smooth and flat; also, a machine that achieves this effect; a screeder.
  6. A smooth, flat layer of concrete, plaster, or similar material, especially if acting as a base for paving stones, tiles, wooden planks, etc.
  7. A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole; a shred.
  8. A piece of land, especially one that is narrow.
  9. A rent, a tear.
  10. A (discordant) sound or tune played on bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.
  11. The sound of something scratching or tearing.

verb

  1. To rend, to shred, to tear.
  2. To read or repeat from memory fluently or glibly; to reel off.
  3. To use a screed to produce a smooth, flat surface of concrete, plaster, or similar material; also (generally) to put down a layer of concrete, plaster, etc.
  4. To become rent or torn.
  5. To play bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.
  6. To make a discordant or harsh scratching or tearing sound.
  7. To play (a sound or tune) on bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.

adjective

  1. Strewn with scree.

Etymology

From Middle English screde [and other forms], a variant of shrede (“fragment, scrap; strip of cloth; strip cut off from a larger piece; band or thread woven into fabric; element, streak”) (whence shred (noun)), from Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“a piece cut off; paring, shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a cut, crack”), from *skraudaną (“to cut up, shred”), from…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.