Screed

/skɹiːd/ · noun

Meaning

A piece of writing (such as an article, letter, or list) or a speech, especially if long..

Definitions by Sense

1. A piece of writing (such as an article, letter, or list) or a speech, especially if long.
2. (by extension) A speech or piece of writing which contains angry and extended criticism.
3. Chiefly in the plural form screeds: a large quantity.
4. (construction, masonry) Senses relating to building construction and masonry.
5. (chiefly Ireland, Newfoundland, Scotland, dated) A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole; a shred.
6. (chiefly regional British, Scotland, dated) A piece of land, especially one that is narrow.
7. (chiefly Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, dated) A rent, a tear.
8. (transitive, chiefly Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, dated) To rend, to shred, to tear.

Example Sentences

Eh, Mr Henry! but the carle gae him a screed o' doctrine! Ye might hae heard him a mile down the wind—He routed like a cow in a fremd loaning.

I see it's three o'clock in the morning and I've written whole screeds when I only intended to write a short note!

When he [Herman Melville] had finished the first part of his novel [Pierre; or, The Ambiguities], and printed it, the publishers would have nothing to do with it. They claimed they had been deluded into accepting a villainous and blasphemous screed against religion and morality and all right living.

One of our primary tasks is to replace racist screeds like The Bell Curve and The End of Racism with sound economic arguments that are relatively simple to understand and yet serious enough to encompass divergent points of view.

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 [Ron] Atkinson, urging him not to select his "monkeys" for the game.

It uses a lot of footage of Japanese actors, and screeds of character text, making it unlikely to see a European release.

Compared to LOB [the Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen Corpus], the BNC [British National Corpus] is an anarchic object, containing 'texts' from 25 to 250,000 words long, screeds of painfully formulaic entries from the Dictionary of National Biography, conversations monosyllabic and incoherent, sermons, pornography, and the electronic discourse of the Leeds United Football Club Fan Club.

"Weel done!" cried Mrs. Smith. "I trow ye gae her a screed o' your mind!"

Synonyms for screed

Antonyms for screed

Related Words

Word Forms

• screeds
• screeding
• screeded

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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