Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (orig. US) anything or anyone exceptional, in size, attractiveness, wit etc.

1818		M.L. Weems Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1929) 77: Here I come! a screamer! yes, d——n me, if I an’ta proper screamer; just from Bengal!
1832		J.K. Paulding Westward Ho! I 122: I swear, if he once gets my tail up, he’ll find I’m from the forks of the Roaring River, and a bit of a screamer.
1835		Eve. Star (NY) 1 May 2/2: We have just received Fanny Kemble’s Journal the real simon pure, and sure enough it is a ‘screamer’ to judge by a hasty glance.
1841		N.Y. Daily Trib. 28 July 2/4: Look out for the New World [a publication] of next Saturday. It will be a screamer!
1846		C.M. Kirkland Western Clearings 44: ‘But she’s a screamer of a girl,’ persisted Master George; ‘I’d rather have her than all the rest.’.
1859		H.E. Taliaferro Fisher’s River 46: I want to talk all night with you on Scripter, I’ve hearn you was a reg’lar built screamer in that way, and I want to try my hand with you.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 23: ‘Now you’ll see a reg’lar lark,’ ses I [...] ‘a reg’lar screamer.’.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: Does a gentleman wish to express his admiration for a young lady: she is a ‘stunner,’ an ‘out and outer,’ a ‘screamer’.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 224: ‘Why, boys,’ said a Georgia Cracker to a colored soldier of the Federal Army, during Sherman’s famous march, ‘if them’s the kind your regimen is made off [sic], I knocks under: them’s screamers.’.
1879		‘’Arry on ’Igh Art’ in Punch 1 Feb. 42: That gal in Turk togs is a screamer. Wot eyes! and her figger!
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Oct. 2/2: Our picture posters have ‘roped’ my sympathies once again. This week the attraction is a screamer, representing one of the loveliest daughters of Eve that ever broke the gizzard of a Barwen squatter.
1887		‘’Arry at the Sea-Side’ Punch 10 Sept. 111/1: Oh, such a scrumptious young gal [...] She would take the shine out of some screamers, I tell yer.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 11 Jan. 7/2: Martinetti’s new sketch [...] has knocked ’em with a vengeance. It is a real screamer from start to finish.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 6 Jan. 5/1: Goin’ over to New Zealand [...] in order to study the business. Ain’t he a screamer!
1909		R.A. Wason Happy Hawkins 42: I’d allus heard ’at he was a rip-snortin’ screamer, an’ here he was talkin’ low an’ level like.
1918		R.D. Paine Fighting Fleets 74: It blew a regular gale of wind, a screamer.
1944		W. Blair Tall Tale America 47: I’m a regular screamer from the Ohio, the Mississippi and all the streams that run into them!
1956		J. Harvey ‘East Wind on Sunday’ in Drake-Brockman West Coast Stories (1959) 18: [of a wave] She’s big [...] She’s a screamer.
1967		Current Sl. II:1 6: Screamer, n. Party girl; a ‘hot number’.
1980		G. Liddy Will 70: My ancient interceptor [i.e. an automobile] was a screamer, but with an unhappy tendency of the accelerator to stick.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 171: He was a screamer, all right.

(b) (US) a scolding, a punishment.

1833

Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 7 n.p.: I have just primed my firelock, to give big mouth Jim [...] a screamer, for eating up the chowder .

(c) a serious and unpleasant situation.

1846		Portage Sentinel (Ravenna, OH) 7 Jan. 1/1: It was a real screamer [...] both on account of what happened there, and what befel afterwards.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 288: I am in for a ‘screamer,’ and the bill for which I am arrested is only a ruse to prevent my leaving England.
1919		E. Dyson ‘Repaired’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 95: Gawd, the last one was a screamer / Wirin’ up me flamin’ femur!

(d) a thrilling or funny story, a ‘screaming’ farce.

1849		Sam Sly 10 Feb. 4/3: We had heard of the funny affair, and will give, next week, a spicy Romance of Rosoman-street. Let our friends in that quarter look out for a screamer.
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 77/1: Actors speak of such and such a farce as being a ‘screamer’.
1864		Birmingham Dly Post 20 Oct. 6/3: Theatrical slang [has] a ‘screamer’.
1882		Bristol Magpie 26 Oct. 9/1: [of plays] On Thursday, for Mr. Hemming's benefit, Crutch and Toothpick, and another ‘screamer,’ Cruel Carmen.
1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Barred Bard’ Sporting Times 8 Feb. 1/2: If you’re really hard up for a rhyme, / I think I have one that will suit you this time, / It’s a screamer, I tell you—it’s something sublime.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 14/3: The prominent successes of the season have been Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion,’ Maughan’s ‘The Land of Promise,’ [...] and the Yankee screamer, ‘Potash and Perlmutter.’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Screamer, dramatic moving picture (prison).
1961		Mad mag. July 28: A real screamer overheard at the Third Avenue A & P.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] [of a sensational news story] Maybe the editor [...] is working up a screamer on Jasper Speight’s murder.

(e) (US campus) anything exceptionally challenging, difficult, esp. work.

1975

G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 65: screamer n Something that is especially difficult and mentally or emotionally taxing.

(f) something horrifying.

1986		S. King It (1987) 154: But if this is a story, it’s not one of those classic screamers by Lovecraft or Bradbury or Poe.
1999		Guardian G2 17 Dec. 5: ‘That was a screamer,’ she says, shivering at the memory.

(a) a ballad singer.

1861

(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 223/2: The ballad singers – or street screamers, as we calls ’em – had the pull out of that.

(b) (orig. US) a teller of exaggerated or very funny stories.

1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 119: I like the crittur, thar’s no denying, for he’s a screamer among Injuns.
1843		L.H. Medina Nick of the Woods II i: He’s a screamer among the Injuns.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 132: Well, you are a screamer, and no mistake.

(c) an informer [scream v. (1)].

1976

P. Theroux Family Arsenal 96: You think I’m lying? Are you a screamer or what? Of course I’m lying.

(d) (also screamer and creamer) a woman who screams or otherwise makes a good deal of noise during intercourse [cream v. (1c)].

1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 62: The screamer was a young woman whose husband had returned that day from service in the Pacific with the marines.
1977		Maledicta 1 Summer 18: She’s just a groupie, a screamer-&-creamer, a celebrity-fucker, and a plaster-caster.
1995		I. Rankin Let It Bleed 97: McAnully at first said she was ‘a screamer’ – in other words, that she cried out at the point of climax.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 37: He’d fucked her a coupla times himself. A real screamer.

(e) (US campus) a practical joker, a prankster.

1969

Current Sl. IV:1 13: Screamer, n. A fun-loving person; a practical joker.

(f) (orig. gay) a flagrant homosexual.

1960		in G. Westwood A Minority 88: I hate screamers [...] I don’t want to be seen talking to them.
1970		San Diego Sailor 25: I thought of all the screamers I knew who would have given an eye tooth to have had the kind of time this kid had had.
1983		R. Price Breaks 340: Diagonally across from us sat three screamers, lowlife semi-transvestites with pancake makeup, mascara and five o’clock shadow.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 192: There was a better than even chance he’d turn out to be a Jew or some ultraliberal screamer.

(g) (Aus. prison) a derog. term for one who is unable to take a beating without crying out.

2006

B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] As new tracs arrived we listened to their reception biffs to determine if they were screamers or not. At Grafton your stature in the pecking order was determined by your ability to take a flogging without making a noise.

(a) (Aus.) a pornographic postcard.

1907

Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Aug. 1/1: Amongst the recent pictorial additions are post cards from Baby Green [...] one of the Port Said screamers resembles a corroboree can-can.

(b) (US) a sensational newspaper headline or story.

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 7/2: Screamer (Press). Alarmist article or leader.
1941		J. Archibald ‘Dog Collared’ in Popular Detective Oct. 🌐 There was a picture of Satchelfoot on the front page. A screamer said: SONYA KAVYAR READY TO CAVE.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 333: Roll out the screamers! The Klitchers are coming to town!!!
1999		Guardian G2 3 Aug. 2: A newspaper bill board screamer on par with Titanic Sinks.
2000		Guardian Editor 7 Jan. 5: The Daily Star’s front page screamer, ‘Becks wears my kecks’.
[2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 207: I’d spotted the odd screamline about this daffy Profumo carry-on].

(c) a sensational or propagandist piece of writing.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Jan. 15/3: Your jingoistic Kipling, he’s skiting for you yet; / He writes your Jingo screamers and he writes ‘Lest we Forget.’.

(d) (US Und.) an arrest warrant.

1990

(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 265: ‘Oh, you’re Huncke. We’ve got a screamer on you.’ They had a warrant for my arrest.

(e) (US black) a siren, esp. on a police car.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 15: ‘Nobody call the cops over some shootin.’ He glanced in the siren’s direction [...] ‘Course, if they come, it with their screamer full-on.’.