screed

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A piece of writing (such as an article, letter, or list) or a speech, especially if long.

   • Eh, Mr Henry! but the carle gae him a screed o' doctrine! Ye might hae heard him a mile down the wind—He routed like a cow in a fremd loaning.
   • I see it's three o'clock in the morning and I've written whole screeds when I only intended to write a short note!
2. 2

   A speech or piece of writing which contains angry and extended criticism.

   • One of our primary tasks is to replace racist screeds like The Bell Curve and The End of Racism with sound economic arguments that are relatively simple to understand and yet serious enough to encompass divergent points of view.
3. 3

   Chiefly in the plural form screeds

   Chiefly in the plural form screeds: a large quantity.

   • It uses a lot of footage of Japanese actors, and screeds of character text, making it unlikely to see a European release.
4. ›+ 14 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Senses relating to building construction and masonry.

      • When applied to large surfaces, strips or screeds of wood should be fixed to float from; and when the plain surface is formed, it is finished with the handfloat.
      • The use of timber battens as screeds makes it easy to get the floating coat flat. Getting a blemish-free skim coat is more difficult.
   2. 5

      A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole

      A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole; a shred.

      • "Weel done!" cried Mrs. Smith. "I trow ye gae her a screed o' your mind!"
      • The housewife hastens in the gleaming sun, / With watering-pan to sprinkle when it needs / The bleaching cloth which her own fingers spun, / Stretch'd on the orchard sward in whitening screeds; [...]
   3. 6

      A piece of land, especially one that is narrow.

   4. 7

      A rent, a tear.

      • Yet when a tale comes i' my head, / Or laſſes gie my heart a ſcreed, / As whiles they're like to be my dead, / (O ſad diſeaſe!) / I kittle up my ruſtic reed; / It gies me ease.
   5. 8

      To rend, to shred, to tear.

   6. 9

      To read or repeat from memory fluently or glibly

      To read or repeat from memory fluently or glibly; to reel off.

      • He'll ſcreed you aff Effectual Calling, / As faſt as ony in the dwalling.— [...]
      • Syne the hale kintra's clashes he screeds them aff han'— / He's a gabbin' bit birkie, the Auld Beggar Man.
   7. 10

      To use a screed to produce a smooth, flat surface of concrete, plaster, or similar…

      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.

      • For this surfacing, the concrete is screeded and then covered with crushed red granite of 2- to 2½-in. size which is spread with shovels on the wet concrete, the quantity averaging about 55 lb. of stone per square yard.
      • Pouring of the slab was then started and, as the concrete was brought to full height it was screeded off to the proper level, employing screed guides which had been set previously to true elevation, with support on the slab reinforcing.
      • To screed and finish street and airfield pavements, you need power screeds and finishers. [...] Figure 3-22 shows a power screed as it screeds concrete over 1/2-inch steel reinforcing.
   8. 11

      To become rent or torn.

      • [H]ad I been in ony o' your rotten French camlets now, or your drab-de-berries, it would hae screeded like an auld rag wi' sic a weight as mine.
   9. 12

      A (discordant) sound or tune played on bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.

      • "Wi' hat in hand," sweet lass, quo I, / "Wer't in my power to sooth thy sigh, / My hame-bor'd whistle I wad try, / An' gie't a screed, / Atween whar Tiviot murmurs by, / An' bonny Tweed."
   10. 13

       The sound of something scratching or tearing.

       • Right o'er the ſteep he leans, / When his well-pleniſh'd king-hood voiding needs; / And, ſploiting, ſtrikes the ſtane his grany hit, / Wi' piſtol ſcreed, ſhot frae his gorlin doup.— [...]
   11. 14

       To play bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.

       • [T]wa Cheels we White Sarks, and a wee Wean with a white Sark got aboon whar the Whiſtle-Pipes war, the yen lilted, and the other Skirled and Screeded till them, and ſtill I ſweeted, I thought they never wad hea done.
   12. 15

       To make a discordant or harsh scratching or tearing sound.

   13. 16

       To play (a sound or tune) on bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.

       • In life's gay morn, or youthfu' prime, / Ere fancy droops her wing, / Screed up your reed, for that's the time / For bards to rant and sing; [...]
   14. 17

       Strewn with scree.

       • We clambered up a screed slope.
       • A safety fence edged the curve of the road and beyond this the screed slope increased in grade to a precipitous cliff.
       • Son and father reached the mouth of the canyon and were leading their mounts on foot up a screed hill face that looked down on the tracks.

The neighborhood

• neighborshred