SCREENING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Screening

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/skrˈinɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Screening n. The process of examining or testing objects methodically to find those having desirable properties. See screen 3. Note: In the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical screening involves testing a large number of samples of substances to find those having desirable pharmacological activity; those samples which have the property sought are called active or positive in the screen. The substances tested may be pure compounds with known structure, mixtures of pure compounds, or complex mixtures obtained by extraction from living organisms. There are often additional sets of test performed on active samples, called counterscreening to eliminate those samples that may also possess undesirable properties. In the case of screening of mixtures from living organisms, a type of counterscreening called dereplication is usually performed, to determine if the active sample contains a known compound which has previously been studied.

verb

Screen v. t. (past & past part. screened; pres. part. screening)

To provide with a shelter or means of concealment; 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. "They were encouraged and screened by some who were in high commands."

To pass, as coal, gravel, ashes, etc., through a screen in order to separate the coarse from the fine, or the worthless from the valuable; to sift.

To examine a group of objects methodically, to separate them into groups or to select one or more for some purpose. As:

(a)

To inspect the qualifications of candidates for a job, to select one or more to be hired.

(b)

(Biochem., Med.) To test a large number of samples, in order to find those having specific desirable properties; as, to screen plant extracts for anticancer agents.

See images of 'Screening'

Etymology of 'Screening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Screening" Quotes from Famous Books

... the black sticks into his pocket and backed away, screening his prisoner as he did so. The ex-Confederate who had come up on the stage was standing beside Wadley. He let out the old yell of his war ...

— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine

... let me hear what you have heard,' said he, putting his elbow on the table, and screening his eyes with his hand. 'Not that I am a bit afraid of anything you can hear about my girl,' continued he. 'Only in this little nest of gossip it's as well to know what ...

— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... world, that would have delighted the eye of a botanist. As they wished to get beyond earshot of those left lounging by the porch, they continued on along a walk which had once been gravelled, but was now overgrown with weeds and grass. It formed a cool arcade, the thick foliage meeting overhead, and screening it from the rays of the sun. Following it for about a hundred yards or so, they again had the clear sky before them, and saw they were on the brow of a steep slope—almost a precipice—which, after trending a short distance ...

— The Free Lances - A Romance of the Mexican Valley • Mayne Reid

... outwitted, and you could not have long avoided detection, even in that dress." It was my turn to laugh now, which, to their very great amazement, I did, loud and long; that I should have thought my present costume could ever have been the means of screening me from observation, however it might have been calculated to attract it, was rather too absurd a supposition even for the mayor of a village to entertain; besides, it only now occurred to me that I was figuring in the character of a prisoner. The ...

— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

... up through the food and across its surface. A pan, a platter, or a solid board, as will be readily seen, is not so good for drying as a wooden frame of convenient size that has small slats or fine, rustless-wire netting, or screening, attached to the bottom. Such a device may be covered with cheesecloth to keep out dirt. If it is to be used in the oven or set in the sun, a nail driven part way into each corner will provide feet and thus keep it from resting on the oven floor ...

— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5 • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

More quotes...