SCREEN, noun [Latin cerno, excerno, Gr. to separate, to sift, to judge, to fight, contend skirmish. The primary sense of the root is to separate, to drive or force asunder, hence to sift, to discern, to judge, to separate or cut off danger.]

1. Any thing that separates or cuts off inconvenience, injury or danger, ; and hence, that which shelters or protects from danger, or prevents inconvenience. Thus a screen is used to intercept the sight, to intercept the heat of fire on the light of a candle.

Some ambitious men seem as screens to princes in matters of danger and envy.

2. A riddle or sieve.

SCREEN, verb transitive

1. To separate or cut off from inconvenience, injury or danger; to shelter; to protect; to protect by hiding; to conceal; as fruits screened from cold winds by a forest or hill. Our houses and garments screen us from cold; an umbrella screens us from rain and the sun's rays. Neither rank nor money should screen from punishment the man who violates the laws.

2. To sift or riddle; to separate the coarse part of any thing from the fine, or the worthless from the valuable.