Any one of three species of South American birds constituting the family Anhimidae, and the suborder Palamedeae. They have two spines on each wing, and the head is either crested or horned. They are easily tamed, and then serve as guardians for other poultry. The crested screamers, or chajas, belong to the genus Chauna. The horned screamer, or kamichi, is Palamedea cornuta.

Uttering screams; shrieking.

Having the nature of a scream; like a scream; shrill; sharp.

A pebble; a stone; also, a heap of stones or rocky debris.

of Screech

of Screech

To utter a harsh, shrill cry; to make a sharp outcry, as in terror or acute pain; to scream; to shriek.

A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream.

The picarian birds, as distinguished from the singing birds.

Like a screech; shrill and harsh.

A strip of plaster of the thickness proposed for the coat, applied to the wall at intervals of four or five feet, as a guide.

A wooden straightedge used to lay across the plaster screed, as a limit for the thickness of the coat.

A fragment; a portion; a shred.

A breach or rent; a breaking forth into a loud, shrill sound; as, martial screeds.

An harangue; a long tirade on any subject.

Anything that separates or cuts off inconvenience, injury, or danger; that which shelters or conceals from view; a shield or protection; as, a fire screen.

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, or the like.

A surface, as that afforded by a curtain, sheet, wall, etc., upon which an image, as a picture, is thrown by a magic lantern, solar microscope, etc.

A long, coarse riddle or sieve, sometimes a revolving perforated cylinder, used to separate the coarser from the finer parts, as of coal, sand, gravel, and the like.

of Screen

of Screen

To provide with a shelter or means of concealment; to separate or cut off from inconvenience, injury, or danger; to shelter; to protect; to protect by hiding; to conceal; as, fruits screened from cold winds by a forest or hill.

To pass, as coal, gravel, ashes, etc., through a screen in order to separate the coarse from the fine, or the worthless from the valuable; to sift.

The refuse left after screening sand, coal, ashes, etc.

A cylinder, or a cylindrical perforation, having a continuous rib, called the thread, winding round it spirally at a constant inclination, so as to leave a continuous spiral groove between one turn and the next, -- used chiefly for producing, when revolved, motion or pressure in the direction of its axis, by the sliding of the threads of the cylinder in the grooves between the threads of the perforation adapted to it, the former being distinguished as the external, or male screw, or, more usually the screw; the latter as the internal, or female screw, or, more usually, the nut.

Specifically, a kind of nail with a spiral thread and a head with a nick to receive the end of the screw-driver. Screws are much used to hold together pieces of wood or to fasten something; -- called also wood screws, and screw nails. See also Screw bolt, below.

Anything shaped or acting like a screw; esp., a form of wheel for propelling steam vessels. It is placed at the stern, and furnished with blades having helicoidal surfaces to act against the water in the manner of a screw. See Screw propeller, below.

A steam vesel propelled by a screw instead of wheels; a screw steamer; a propeller.

An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint; a niggard.

An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.