screen
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: skrēn
ipa: /skɹiːn/
ipa: [skɹ̥ʷɪi̯n]
rhymes: -iːn
Forms: form: screens
form: screening
form: screened
form: screened
form: skreen
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.
Senses: examples: text: Mary screened the beans to remove the clumps of gravel.
glosses: To filter by passing through a screen.
glosses: To shelter or conceal.
examples: text: The news report was screened because it accused the politician of wrongdoing.
text: "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."
ref: 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Consent”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 153:
glosses: To remove information, or censor intellectual material from viewing. To hide the facts.
examples: text: The news report will be screened at 11:00 tonight.
topics: broadcasting
film
media
television
glosses: To present publicly (on the screen).
examples: text: We need to screen this porch. These bugs are driving me crazy.
glosses: To fit with a screen.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To examine patients or treat a sample in order to detect a chemical or a disease, or to assess susceptibility to a disease.
qualifier: molecular biology
glosses: 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.
topics: ball-games
basketball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: pick
glosses: To stand so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
examples: text: A Phone to Screen Calls
ref: 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)
text: 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.
ref: 2012 January 15, Essentials of Business Communication, →ISBN, page 343:
text: The new phones can take pictures, screen calls and even make calls on their own.
ref: 2018 October 10, “The Daily 202”, in The Washington Post:
glosses: To determine the source or subject matter of a call before deciding whether to answer the phone.
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from screen (verb)
word: screened-in
sense: terms derived from screen (verb)
word: screener
sense: terms derived from screen (verb)
word: screen in
sense: terms derived from screen (verb)
word: screen out