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 See M as screens to princes in matters of danger and envy.
2. A riddle or sieve.
SCREEN, v.t.
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.