Word: screed Part of Speech: noun 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 Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). The English word is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd. Doublet of escrow, scroll, and shred. Pronunciation: /skɹiːd/, /skɹid/ 1. A piece of writing (such as an article, letter, or list) or a speech, especially if long. Example: 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. Example: 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. A speech or piece of writing which contains angry and extended criticism. Labels: broadly Example: When he [Herman Melville] had finished the first part of his novel [Pierre; or, The Ambiguities], and printed it, the publishers would have nothing to do with it. They claimed they had been deluded into accepting a villainous and blasphemous screed against religion and morality and all right living. Example: 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. Chiefly in the plural form screeds: a large quantity. Example: It uses a lot of footage of Japanese actors, and screeds of character text, making it unlikely to see a European release. Example: Compared to LOB [the Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen Corpus], the BNC [British National Corpus] is an anarchic object, containing 'texts' from 25 to 250,000 words long, screeds of painfully formulaic entries from the Dictionary of National Biography, conversations monosyllabic and incoherent, sermons, pornography, and the electronic discourse of the Leeds United Football Club Fan Club. 4. Senses relating to building construction and masonry. Example: 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. Example: The term Screed, in plastering, is a stile formed of lime and hair, about seven or eight inches wide, gauged exactly true. In floated-work these screed are made at every three or four feet distance, vertically round a room, and are prepared perfectly straight by applying the straight-edge to them to make them so; and when all the screeds are formed, the parts between them are filled up flush with lime and hair, or stuff, and made even with the face of the screeds. The straight-edge is then worked horizontally upon the screeds, to take off all superfluous stuff. 5. Senses relating to building construction and masonry. Example: The screeds and vibrator on the machine finisher are set to give the proper surface elevation and produce a dense concrete. In most cases, there should be a sufficiently thick layer of mortar ahead of the screed to insure that all low spots will be filled. The vibrator follows the front screed and the rear screed is last. The rear screed should be adjusted to carry enough grout ahead of it to insure continuous contact between screed and pavement. 6. Senses relating to building construction and masonry. Example: [T]wo workmen, provided with a tub of putty and a quantity of plaster of Paris, proceed to run the cornice. Before using the mould, they gauge a screed of putty and plaster upon the wall and ceiling, covering so much of each as will correspond with the top and bottom of the intended cornice. On this screed one or two slight deal straight-edges, adapted to as many notches or chases made in the mould for it to work upon, are nailed. Example: A few early churches were floored with a screed of weak concrete, after the Roman fashion, the ingredients being lime mortar and crushed brick (opus signinum). 7. A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole; a shred. Labels: Ireland, Newfoundland, Scotland, dated Example: "Weel done!" cried Mrs. Smith. "I trow ye gae her a screed o' your mind!" Example: 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; [...] 8. A piece of land, especially one that is narrow. Labels: Scotland, UK, dated, regional Example: And it be further Enacted, That in all Caſes where any of the Lands and Grounds by this Act intended to be divided and incloſed ſhall adjoin on any Freeboard, Screed, or Parcel of Land left on the Outſide of the Fences of any adjoining Pariſh, Townſhip, or Place, which ſhall run into any of the Lands intended to be incloſed by virtue of this Act, ſuch Freeboard, Screed, or Parcel of Land ſhall be deemed and taken to be Parcel of the Lands hereby directed to be divided and incloſed, [...] 9. A rent, a tear. Labels: Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland, dated Example: 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.