scree
UK/skɹiː//skɹi/
scree noun: loose stony debris on a slope.
Noun (1)
scree (countable and uncountable, plural screes)
- Loose stony debris on a slope.
- To the north the towering scree-strewn slopes of Saddleback begin to draw nearer as we start the abrupt descent towards Keswick.1961 October, ""Voyageur"", “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 601
- Struggling down the slope,
There's not much hope.
I begin to try to ride the scree
But the rocks are tumbling all around me.1973, Peter Gabriel with Genesis, Riding the Scree
- Similar debris made up of broken building material such as bricks, concrete, etc.
- Acres of the industrial port had been reduced to desolation, half-walls, half-chimneys, crazy sticks of steel that looped up out of concrete scree. The temptation not to clear and rebuild must have been strong.2002, Catherine Merridale, Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-century Russia, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 243
- A slope made up of scree at the base of a cliff, mountain, etc.
- The next landmark was an apachita 'cairn', at the top of a steep scree. Each pilgrim carried a stone to the summit, spat on it, and threw it on to the cairn — the purpose being, I was told, to relieve the soul of its sins […]1987, Michael J. Sallnow, Pilgrims of the Andes: Regional Cults in Cusco (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry), Washington, D.C.; London: Smithsonian Institution Press, →ISBN, page 189
- Also, special to Crete, and probably derived from some aspect of its climactic history, is cementation. Many screes are converted, in whole or in part, into concrete-like breccias. Carapaces of cemented scree encrust steep slopes. Cliffs of conglomerate or marl are covered with a layer of...2008, I[oannis] N[ikolaou] Vogiatzakis, O. Rackham, “Crete”, in I. N. Vogiatzakis, G[loria] Pungetti, A[ntoinette] M. Mannion, editors, Mediterranean Island Landscapes: Natural and Cultural...
Verb (1)
scree (third-person singular simple present screes, present participle screeing, simple past and past participle screed)
- To traverse scree downhill.
- We decided it would be fun to go down the face of the mountain screeing ("skiing" on scree).2006, Sean Swarner, Keep Climbing, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, →ISBN
Noun (2)
scree (plural screes)
- A harsh, high-pitched sound or cry (as of a hawk).
- I think both of our hearts must have gone into overdrive when we heard the metallic scree of a door being rolled open and the men's voices that accompanied it.2008 September 3, Brad Fear, “The ‘Captives’ Entry”, in A Macabre Myth of a Moth-man, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 130
- For a few moments the only sound was the rasp of a file as Lee moved onto the last of Rowdy's hooves, the sound of John clipping, the scree of a hawk flying overhead and the occasional nicker from the horses already tied up.2015, Carolyne Aarsen, chapter 7, in The Cowboy’s Homecoming, New York, N.Y.: Love Inspired Books, Harlequin, →ISBN, pages 113–114
Verb (2)
scree (third-person singular simple present screes, present participle screeing, simple past and past participle screed)
- To make a high-pitched cry like that of a hawk.
- They smelled the land before they saw it. A rich, dark odor of sweet earth, coming at them through a misty rain. Then seabirds appeared, crying and screeing.2003, Pete Hamill, chapter 38, in Forever: A Novel, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, →ISBN
- She didn't want to scream to alert Malicia or a guard. What could she do to get the boy's attention? Suddenly, the memory of the mountaintop came to her. The hawk. She screed like a hawk. The boy stopped and searched the sky, […]2009, Linda Ross Meyer, The First Quest of Match, the Whining Dragon, [s.l.]: Linda Ross Meyer, →ISBN, page 62
Verb (3)
scree (third-person singular simple present screes, present participle screeing, simple past and past participle screed)
- To flatten or level concrete while still wet, and remove protruding gravel and stones from the surface.
- The crushing and screeing equipment owned by the TVA was transferred from job to job, and the availability of this equipment was one of the factors in determining who would produce the aggregate.1948, United States Tennessee Valley Authority, Concrete Production and Control: Tennessee Valley Authority Projects (Technical Report (Tennessee Valley Authority); no. 21), Washington, D.C....
- Sequence of Construction – Circular Dog Kennel. […] Pour concrete. Use a straight 1-inch pipe about 12 feet long to scree each section. Extra help should be on hand to get screeing done. […] Specify a concrete mix that will not harden before screeing can be completed; do not order more concrete...1974 September, “For the Dogs”, in Duane Raver, editor, Wildlife in North Carolina, volume XXXVIII, number 9, Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8
Noun (3)
scree (plural screes)
- A coarse sieve.
- A contract of lease was entered into between the pursuer, who is the proprietor of the estate of Bargaddie, on the one part, and William M'Creath and others, carrying on business under the firm of the Bargaddie Coal Company, on the other part, […] and the lessees becoming bound to pay to the...1859 March 15, John Lorimer, William E[llis] Gloag, James Paterson, “The Bargaddie of Bartonshill Coal Company (Robert Paterson, J. B. Neilson, &c.), Appellants, v. Robert Wark, Respondent”, in...
scree meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
scree in Tamil
- உடை கற்குவை, சரிவுக் குவியல், சரிவுக் கூளம்
scree in Malayalam
- loose stony debris on a slope
- ടാലസ് ṭālasŭ
scree in Kannada
- ಕಿಗ್ಗಲ್ಲು, ಕಿಗ್ಗಲ್ಲುಗಳು, ಬೆಟ್ಟದ ಇಳಿಜಾರಿನಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಸಣ್ಣ ಕಲ್ಲುಗಳು
Examples of scree in a sentence
- Sprawled prone among the rocks, the team waited for a reply to their request to fire. […] Occasional rounds zinged off the scree, each with a different pitch.2003, Bing (Francis J.) West, chapter XXV, in The Pepperdogs: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 328:
- Many screes are converted, in whole or in part, into concrete-like breccias.2008, I[oannis] N[ikolaou] Vogiatzakis, O. Rackham, “Crete”, in I. N. Vogiatzakis, G[loria] Pungetti, A[ntoinette] M. Mannion, editors...
- Use a straight 1-inch pipe about 12 feet long to scree each section.1974 September, “For the Dogs”, in Duane Raver, editor, Wildlife in North Carolina, volume XXXVIII, number 9, Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina...
- He was a stupid sonofabitch who didn't scree the concrete enough, his corner post was an eighth of an inch out of plumb, and what asshole set these louvers upside down?1999, Maxine Kumin, chapter VII, in Quit Monks or Die!: A Novel, Ashland, Or.: Story Line Press, →ISBN, page 44:
Forms of scree
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | screes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | screes |
| present participle | screeing |
| past participle | screed |
| past | screed |
Origin of scree
Probably 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.
A variant of screed.
Words formed from scree
Phrases with scree
Words that rhyme with scree
Questions about scree
- What does scree mean?
- Scree means loose stony debris on a slope.
- What is scree in Tamil?
- Scree in Tamil is உடை கற்குவை, சரிவுக் குவியல், சரிவுக் கூளம். See Scree meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use scree in a sentence?
- Sprawled prone among the rocks, the team waited for a reply to their request to fire. […] Occasional rounds zinged off the scree, each with a different pitch.
- What part of speech is scree?
- Scree can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scree?
- Scree is pronounced /skɹiː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of scree?
- The plural of scree is screes.
Words near scree in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scree (page history and authors); scree (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scree (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scree.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.