screed

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skɹiːd/
• Rhymes: -iːd

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English screde (“fragment, strip of cloth”) (from which also shred), from Old English scrēade (“a piece cut off”).

Noun

screed (plural screeds)

1. A long discourse or harangue. [from late 18th c.]

   Synonyms: diatribe, harangue, polemic, rant, tirade

   • 2014 July 25, Paul Rees, “‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … People spat at us’”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     One of the more regular correspondents to the club was an Everton fan, who’d send in an abusive screed each time Albion were due to play on Merseyside. He directed this at Atkinson, urging him not to select his “monkeys” for the game.

2. A piece of writing.
3. A tool, usually a long strip of wood or other material, for producing a smooth, flat surface on, for example, a concrete floor or a plaster wall.
4. A smooth flat layer of concrete or similar material.

   Synonym: flat

5. A piece torn off; a shred. [from early 14th c.]
6. A rent; a tear.

Related terms

• shred

Translations

written harangue

• Dutch: llitanie f
• French: litanie (fr) f, tirade (fr) f, harangue (fr) f, diatribe (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Tirade (de) f, Schmähschrift (de) f, Pamphlet (de) n
• Italian: panegirico (it) m

tool to smoothen still wet surface

• German: Abziehlatte f, Kartätsche (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

smooth flat layer of concrete or similar material

• French: chape (fr) f
• German: Estrich (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: massetto (it) m
• Spanish: losa (es) f

Verb

screed (third-person singular simple present screeds, present participle screeding, simple past and past participle screeded)

1. (construction, masonry) To produce a smooth flat layer of concrete or similar material.
2. (construction, masonry) To use a screed (tool).
3. (transitive) To repeat glibly.

Quotations

• 1999, U.S. Dept. of the Army, Concrete, masonry, and brickwork: a practical handbook, page 131

  The sequence of the operation is: screed, vibrate, then screed again. If forms are in good alignment and firmly supported, and if the concrete has the correct workability, […]

Etymology 2

scree (“loose stony debris”) +‎ -ed

Adjective

screed (not comparable)

1. Strewn with scree.

   We clambered up a screed slope.

References

• “screed”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Creeds, ceders, creeds