screen

plural screens · alternative obsolete skreen

1. A physical barrier that shelters or hides.
   1. A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous.

      a fire screen

      2 more examples

      Your leavy screens throw down.

      c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]

      There is also great use of ambitious men in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy

      1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Ambition”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

   2. architectureA 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.
   3. A stand of trees or other plants that can block wind.
   4. governmentA 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.
   5. figurativelyA disguise; concealment.

      They'd say he was operating behind a screen of guilelessness and was a superhypocrite.

      1987, Saul Bellow, More Die of Heartbreak

2. A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.
   1. A mesh layer in a window or doorway that lets in fresh air but keeps out pests.
   2. businessA 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.
   3. ball gamesThe protective netting which protects the audience from flying objects

      Jones caught the foul up against the screen.

   4. mediaA stencil upon a framed mesh through which paint is forced onto printed-on material; the frame with the mesh itself.
3. by analogySearching through a sample for a target; an act of screening, or the method for it.

   a drug screen, a genetic screen

   1. by analogybiologyA technique used to identify genes so as to study gene functions.
   2. countableby analogyA system intended to separate something into groups based on various criteria.
4. A surface on which various forms or formats of information are displayed.
   1. The viewing surface or area of a movie or of a moving picture or slide presentation.

      The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   2. broadlyA room in a cinema.
   3. The informational viewing area of electronic devices, where output is displayed.

      You won't find me living for the screen […] I ain't equipment I ain't automatic

      1977, Sex Pistols, Spunk, “Problems” (song)

   4. One of the individual regions of a video game, etc. divided into separate screens.

      The idea is to reach the 21st level of an enormous network of interlocking screens, each of which is covered with blocks that you bounce along on.

      1988, Marcus Berkmann, Sophistry (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 30, June 1988

      1 more example

      Bub and Bob, the brontosaur buddies, must battle bullies by bursting their bubbles. One or two players can move through 100 screens of arcade-style graphics.

      1989, Compute, volume 11, page 51

   5. computingThe visualised data or imagery displayed on a computer screen.

      After you turn on the computer, the login screen appears.

      1 more example

      Clicking the Edit button sends you to a screen where you can change the name and description.

   6. broadlyball gamesAn erection of white canvas or wood placed on the boundary opposite a batsman to make the ball more easily visible.
5. Definitions related to standing in the path of an opposing player
   1. abbreviationellipsisAmerican footballEllipsis of screen pass.
   2. ball gamesAn offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.

      Synonyms: pick

6. ScotlandarchaicA large scarf.

present singular third person screens · participle present screening · participle past screened · past screened · alternative obsolete skreen

1. To filter by passing through a screen.

   Mary screened the beans to remove the clumps of gravel.

2. broadlyfigurativelyTo filter.

   Passenger baggage was screened by X-ray to look for weapons.

3. To shelter or conceal.
4. 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.

   1 more example

   "It were dishonour in me to yield. I will not play the part of an impostor, whom my uncle must despise even while he screens. No; these estates are his right: let him take them; I will not buy them with his daughter's hand."

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Consent”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 153

5. broadcastingTo present publicly (on the screen).

   The news report will be screened at 11:00 tonight.

6. To fit with a screen.

   We need to screen this porch. These bugs are driving me crazy.

7. medicineTo examine patients or treat a sample in order to detect a chemical or a disease or to assess susceptibility to a disease.
8. molecular biologyTo 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.
9. ball gamesTo stand so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.

   Synonyms: pick

10. To determine the source or subject matter of a call before deciding whether to answer the phone.

    A Phone to Screen Calls

    1987 April 7, Associated Press (story title as printed in New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/07/business/a-phone-to-screen-calls.html)

    2 more examples

    If you screen your calls as a time management technique, try this message: I'm not near my phone right now, but I should be able to return calls after 3:30.

    2012 January 15, Essentials of Business Communication, →ISBN, page 343

    The new phones can take pictures, screen calls and even make calls on their own.

    2018 October 10, “The Daily 202”, in The Washington Post

plural Screens

1. A surname.