screamer

[Eng. scream, v.; -er.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. Lit .: One who screams. 2. Fig .: Something very great, big, or out of the common; an extravagant story. ( Slang .) 3. A bouncing, lively girl; a tomboy. ( Am . Slang Dict .) C. As substantive: 1. The act of one who scratches; a scratch. 2. ( Pl . ): Refuse matter strained out of fat when it is melted and purified (Prov.) scratch-Ing-ly, adv. [English scratching; -ly.] With the action of scratching; like one who scratches. "Making him turn close to the ground, like a cat, when scratchingly she wheels about after a mouse."-Sidney: Arcadia, bk. ii. scrăt-tle, v. intran. [A frequent. from scrat =to scratch.] To scramble, to scuttle. (Prov.) " Scrattling up and down alongshore."-Kingsley: West. ward Holch . xxx. scrâugh, scraigh ( gh guttural), 8. [SCRAICH.] A scream, a shriek. ( Scotch.) "I blow sic points of war, that the scraugh of a clock in hen was music to them."-Scott: Bride of Lammer moor, ch. xxiv. scrâw, s . [Ir. scralk .] A turf, a sod. "Neither should that odious custom be allowed, of cut ting scraws , which is flaying off the green surface of the ground, to cover their cabins, or make up their ditches." -Swift : Drapier's Letters , No 7. scrawl, *scrall, *scraule, v . t . . [Prob. the same as scrabble (q. v.), the form being due to confusion with crawl (q. v.).] or mark awkwardly Α. Trans.: Τo drew, write on and irregularly, as with a pen, pencil, or similar instrument; to write hastily or illegibly; to scribble. B. In trans.: Τo write awkwardly or illegibly; to scribble. ( Pope : Sandys ' Ghost.) scrawl, s. [SCRAWL, V.] 1. A piece of hasty, inelegant, or illegible writing; bad writing, a scribble. "In sable scrawls I Nero's name perused." Harte: Vision of Death. 2. A ragged broken branch of a tree or other brushwood. "The former starting from scratch , and the latter in receipt of 200 points."-London Morning Post. boil, boy; pout, jowl; cat, çell, chorus, 3. The young of the dog-crab ( Carcinus mœnas .) ( Lincoln shire .) They have a horn on the forehead, and strong spurs on their powerful wings. They are gentle and shy, and the Crested Screamer ( Chauna chavaria ) is said to be domesticated, and to defend the poultry of its master from birds of prey. Chauna derbiana is the Derbian Screamer, and Palamedea cornuta the Horned Screamer (q. v.). scream'-ing, pr. par. & a. [SCREAM, v.] A. As pr. par.: (See the verb.) B. As adjective: 1. Uttering screams or shrieks; shrieking. 2. Sounding shrilly. "From afar he heard a screaming sound." Dryden: Theodore and Honoria, 100. 3. Causing screams or shouts, as of laughter; as, a screaming farce; that is, one calculated to make the audience scream with laughter. The expre ion is said to have been first used in the Adelphi playbills. ( Slang . Dict .) scree, s . [Etym. doubtful; cf. Icel. skritha =a landslip on a hillside.] A small stone or pebble; debris of rocks, shingle; an accumulation of loose stones or fragments at the foot of a cliff or precipice. (Prov. Eng .) "A scree or accumulation of fragments from the cliff above, gradually slopes down to the bottom of the valley." -Dawkins: Cave- Hunting , ch. iii.