Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. cheap, rotgut whisky.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1945		W.H. Pugsley Saints, Sinners and Ordinary Seamen 231: [The rating] gets hold of some bootleg scotch—‘high life’, they call it on the West Coast, and ‘screech’ in Newfie—and [etc] [OED].
2002		K. Barber at askOxford.com 17 May 🌐 Another Newfoundland social event is the ‘screech-in’, a jocular ceremony where ‘come-from-aways’ (non-Newfoundlanders) are initiated to honorary Newfoundland citizenship by being made to drink ‘screech’, the potent Newfoundland rum, dip their toe in the cold ocean, and kiss a cod.

2. (US) a complaint (to the authorities).

1903

Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/4: I didn’t have any idea of sending up a screech about the dough that I had dropped.

3. (US) a hit, a success.

1905

H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 27: Vera Slasher, who with the aid of her Pickaninnies is the big screech of so many programmes.

4. (gay) the throat, the mouth; the face.

1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 301: ‘Now throw these [i.e. sleeping pills] down your screech’.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘TV Ads’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [We] poured hundreds of cans of Resch’s mixed with soda water down our screeches.
2002		Juha ‘Polari’ 🎵 on Polari [album] Beach in the screech. Alamo jo! / This dizzy hoofer gonna dowry jeebo. / Varda me fatcha, meshigner bona. / Savvy you gettin fericadooza.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 297/2: screech 1. mouth, 2. face.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 124: ‘Shut your screech, you charvering manky Polliwog!’.