scree
Loose stony debris on a slopeLoose stony debris on a slope.
» Mrs. Screed was a mousey, anxious little woman.
Meaning
5 senses(uncountable)Loose stony debris on a slope.
Schutt, Geröll, Talus
о́сыпьósypʹ
о́сипósyp
(broadly, uncountable)Similar debris made up of broken building material such as bricks, concrete, etc.
Schutt
(countable)A slope made up of scree at the base of a cliff, mountain, etc.
a sloping mass of loose rocks at the base of a cliff
A harsh, high-pitched sound or cry (as of a hawk).
(Scotland)A coarse sieve.
Examples
2 sentencesMrs. Screed was a mousey, anxious little woman.
Over the course of his screed, Putin claimed that Ukraine is a historic accident.
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 2
Origin
Probably a back-formation from screes, from Old Norse skriða (“landslide, landslip”); compProbably a back-formation from screes, from Old Norse skriða (“landslide, landslip”); compare skríða (“to glide”) (from Proto-Germanic *skrīþaną (“to crawl; to glide; to walk”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreyt-, *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”)). The word is cognate with Icelandic skriða (“avalanche; landslide, landslip; steep mountain- or hillside made up of gravel and loose rocks”).
Onomatopoeic. However, some connection to a lost dialect term (Old Norse influence? cf. shriek, screech) from Old English sċrēon is not impossible.
Apparently from screen.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: screesSynonyms
1 synonyms- a sloping mass of loose rocks at the base of a cliff:talus
Word family
3 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable