screed

Meanings

Noun

• A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole; a shred.
• A piece of land, especially one that is narrow.
• A rent, a tear.
• A piece of writing (such as an article, letter, or list) or a speech, especially if long.
• A speech or piece of writing which contains angry and extended criticism.
• Chiefly in the plural form screeds: a large quantity.
• A (discordant) sound or tune played on bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.
• The sound of something scratching or tearing.

Verb

• To rend, to shred, to tear.
• To read or repeat from memory fluently or glibly; to reel off.
• To use a screed to produce a smooth, flat surface of concrete, plaster, or similar material; also to put down a layer of concrete, plaster, etc.
• To become rent or torn.
• To play bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.
• To make a discordant or harsh scratching or tearing sound.
• To play (a sound or tune) on bagpipes, a fiddle, or a pipe.

Adjective

• Strewn with scree.

Origin

• From Middle English screde, a variant of shrede (whence shred), from Old English sċrēad, sċrēade, from Proto-Germanic *skraudō, from *skraudaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-. The English word is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd. escrow, scroll, and shred.
• From Middle English screde, Early Middle English screda, a variant of shreden, shrede (whence shred), from Old English scrēadian, from Proto-Germanic *skraudaną, see further at etymology 1; later uses are derived from the noun screed.
• Probably imitative; compare screech, skreigh.
• From scree + -ed.