screen

English Online Dictionary. What means screen‎? What does screen mean?

English

Alternative forms

• skreen (obsolete)

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: skrēn, IPA^(key): /skɹiːn/, [skɹ̥ʷɪi̯n]
• Rhymes: -iːn

Noun

screen (plural screens)

1. A physical divider intended to block an area from view, or provide shelter from something dangerous.
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. (mining, quarrying) A 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.
   2. (baseball) The protective netting which protects the audience from flying objects

   3. (printing) A stencil upon a framed mesh through which paint is forced onto printed-on material; the frame with the mesh itself.
3. (by analogy) Searching through a sample for a target; an act of screening, or the method for it.
   1. (genetics) A technique used to identify genes so as to study gene functions.
4. Various forms or formats of information display
   1. The viewing surface or area of a movie, or moving picture or slide presentation.
      1. (by extension) A room in a cinema.
   2. The informational viewing area of electronic devices, where output is displayed.
      • 1977, Sex Pistols, Spunk, “Problems” (song):

   3. One of the individual regions of a video game, etc. divided into separate screens.
      • 1988, Marcus Berkmann, Sophistry (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 30, June 1988
   4. (computing) The visualised data or imagery displayed on a computer screen.

5. (figurative) A disguise; concealment.
6. Definitions related to standing in the path of an opposing player
   1. (American football) Short for screen pass.
   2. (basketball) An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.

      Synonym: pick

7. (cricket) An erection of white canvas or wood placed on the boundary opposite a batsman to make the ball more easily visible.
8. (nautical) A collection of less-valuable vessels that travel with a more valuable one for the latter's protection.
9. (architecture) 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, etc.
10. (Scotland, archaic) A large scarf.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

Verb

screen (third-person singular simple present screens, present participle screening, simple past and past participle screened)

1. To filter by passing through a screen.

2. To shelter or conceal.
3. To remove information, or censor intellectual material from viewing. To hide the facts.
4. (film, television) To present publicly (on the screen).

5. To fit with a screen.

6. (medicine) To examine patients or treat a sample in order to detect a chemical or a disease, or to assess susceptibility to a disease.
7. (molecular biology) 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.
8. (basketball) To stand so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.

   Synonym: pick

9. To determine the source or subject matter of a call before deciding whether to answer the phone.
   • 1987 April 7, Associated Press (story title as printed in New York Times[1])

     A Phone to Screen Calls

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “screen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “screen”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• screen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• scener, censer, creens, scerne, secern

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English screenshot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skʁin/
• Rhymes: -in

Noun

screen m (plural screens)

1. (Internet, social media) a screenshot

   Synonym: capture d’écran