screen

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
screen/skriːn/

▶noun

• 1 an upright partition used to divide a room, give shelter, or provide concealment.

  ■ a windscreen of a motor vehicle.

  ■ a frame with fine wire netting used to keep out flying insects.

• 2 the surface of a cathode ray tube or similar electronic device, especially that of a television, VDU, or monitor, on which images and data are displayed.

  ■ a blank surface on which a photographic image is projected.

  ■ (the screen) films or television.

  ■ Photography a flat piece of ground glass on which the image formed by a camera lens is focused.

• 3 Printing a transparent finely ruled plate or film used in half-tone reproduction.

• 4 a system or act of screening for the presence or absence of something.

• 5 a large sieve or riddle.

• 6 Military a detachment of troops or ships detailed to cover the movements of the main body.

• 7 a part of an electrical or other instrument which protects it from or prevents it causing electromagnetic interference.

  ■ (also screen grid) Electronics a grid placed between the control grid and the anode of a valve to reduce the capacitance between these electrodes.

▶verb

• 1 conceal, protect, or shelter with a screen.

  ■ protect from something dangerous or unpleasant.

• 2 show (a film or video) or broadcast (a television programme).

• 3 test for the presence or absence of a disease.

  ■ investigate (someone), typically to ascertain suitability for a job.

• 4 pass (a substance such as grain or coal) through a large sieve or riddle, especially so as to sort it into different sizes.

• 5 Printing project (a photograph or other image) through a screen so as to reproduce it as a half-tone.

– derivatives
screenable adjective,
screener noun,
screenful noun (pl. screenfuls),
screening noun.

– origin ME: shortening of Old North. Fr. escren, of Gmc origin.