GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 2 definitions
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Screen (skrēn), n. [OE. scren, OF. escrein, escran, F. écran, of uncertain origin; cf. G. schirm a screen, OHG. scirm, scerm a protection, shield, or G. schragen a trestle, a stack of wood, or G. schranne a railing.]
1. Anything that separates or cuts off inconvenience, injury, or danger; that which shelters or conceals from view; a shield or protection; as, “a fire screen”.
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Your leavy screens throw down. Shak.
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Some ambitious men seem as screens to princes in matters of danger and envy. Bacon.
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2. (Arch.) 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.
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3. A surface, as that afforded by a curtain, sheet, wall, etc., upon which an image, as a picture, is thrown by a magic lantern, solar microscope, etc.
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4. A long, coarse riddle or sieve, sometimes a revolving perforated cylinder, used to separate the coarser from the finer parts, as of coal, sand, gravel, and the like.
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5. (Cricket) An erection of white canvas or wood placed on the boundary opposite a batsman to enable him to see ball better.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
6. a netting, usu. of metal, contained in a frame, used mostly in windows or doors to allow in fresh air while excluding insects. -- Screen door, a door of which half or more is composed of a screen. -- Screen window, a screen inside a frame, fitted for insertion into a window frame.
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7. The surface of an electronic device, as a television set or computer monitor, on which a visible image is formed. The screen is frequently the surface of a cathode-ray tube containing phosphors excited by the electron beam, but other methods for causing an image to appear on the screen are also used, as in flat-panel displays.
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8. The motion-picture industry; motion pictures. “A star of stage and screen.”
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Screen (skrēn), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Screened (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Screening.]
1. To provide with a shelter or means of concealment; to separate or cut off from inconvenience, injury, or danger; to shelter; to protect; to protect by hiding; to conceal; as, “fruits screened from cold winds by a forest or hill”.
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They were encouraged and screened by some who were in high commands. Macaulay.
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2. 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.
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3. to examine a group of objects methodically, to separate them into groups or to select one or more for some purpose. As: (a) To inspect the qualifications of candidates for a job, to select one or more to be hired. (b) (Biochem., Med.) to test a large number of samples, in order to find those having specific desirable properties; as, “to screen plant extracts for anticancer agents”.
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