n. | 1. | 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. |
| 2. | (Arch.) 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. |
| 3. | 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. |
| 4. | 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. |
| 5. | (Cricket) An erection of white canvas or wood placed on the boundary opposite a batsman to enable him to see ball better. |
| 6. | a netting, usu. of metal, contained in a frame, used mostly in windows or doors to allow in fresh air while excluding insects. |
| 7. | The surface of an electronic device, as a television set or computer monitor, on which a visible image is formed. The screen is frequently the surface of a cathode-ray tube containing phosphors excited by the electron beam, but other methods for causing an image to appear on the screen are also used, as in flat-panel displays. |
| 8. | The motion-picture industry; motion pictures. |
v. t. | 1. | 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. |
| 2. | 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. |
| 3. | (Biochem., Med.) to examine a group of objects methodically, to separate them into groups or to select one or more for some purpose. |