scream n.
(orig. US)1. an urgent message.
![]() | I’m from Missouri 34: Here’s a scream from Bunch. | |
![]() | Down River 21: ‘Smuggling?’ queried the surgeon. ‘That’s the line, sir. Had a scream from Headquarters about it only this morning.’ [OED]. | |
![]() | Viva La Madness 41: He’s had the scream, about the kid, sent his family round the gaff. |
2. (US) speechifying, propaganda.
![]() | Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 10 Mar. 53/4: ‘To-night’s the big rally [...] and he’s callin’ this the biggest scream of the campaign so far’. |
3. someone considered excellent, attractive.
![]() | Maison De Shine 247: He was the big scream of the piece. | |
![]() | Tacoma Times (WA) 16 Mar. 4/4: Lord Ballyrot in Slangland [...] ‘Gee, Johnny’s a scream in his first long strides’. | |
![]() | Patriotic Schoolgirl 44: ‘Isn't she a scream?’ [...] ‘Rather! I call her topping’. | |
![]() | Flirt and Flapper 44: Flapper: You’d be a scream to teach, Great-Grandma. | |
![]() | Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 9: Little one you are a triple scream and one big yell. Yes you must have it much made, because you don’t rattle when you roll. | |
![]() | Broken Boy 77: Your father was a scream, but he drank too much. |
4. a success.
![]() | New Ulm Rev. (MN) 3 Mar. 8/2: ‘We’ve got a team that is sure a scream from center field to sub’. | |
![]() | Psmith Journalist (1993) 297: This act is going to be a scream from start to finish. | |
![]() | Right Ho, Jeeves 12: I confidently expect it [i.e. a jacket] to be one long scream from start to finish. |
5. the act of informing on or betraying a criminal accomplice.
![]() | Melody of Death 113: ‘Look here, George, [...] is it a scream?’ ‘A scream?’ Mr. Wallis was puzzled innocence itself. ‘Will you turn King’s evidence?’ said the other shortly. |
6. a fuss.
![]() | Boss of Britain’s Underworld 177: Maybe the thieves thought the owner would not put up a scream. But he did. He screamed his head off. | |
![]() | DSUE (8th edn) 1025/1: since ca. 1925. | |
![]() | Viva La Madness 153: Morty [...] agreed to roll a Samsonite suitcase [...] out of grantley Adams Airport, if Sonny could get it on the plane without a scream-up. |
7. a good time.
![]() | Chicago May (1929) 208: The experiences of Sam Weller’s old man with the shyster-lawyer, who pretended to have a pull with the judges, and had no pull at all, except for petty graft, was a scream. | |
![]() | Indep. on Sun. Real Life 29 Aug. 1: Drag queens, rubber boys, clones, diesel dykes and lipstick lezzies all having a scream at the largest lesbian and gay event in Britain. |
8. a complaint, esp. against criminal activities or to the police.
![]() | Norman’s London (1969) 17: Mind you I used to do the same thing myself at one time, so I really should have no scream. | in Sun. Graphic 20 July in
9. an alarm, a hue and cry.
![]() | Rough Stuff 204: Next morning when the scream came that the place had been robbed, you can imagine how the copper felt. | |
![]() | There Ain’t No Justice 42: I take half a dozen after that, make meself some lovely money [...] but the scream was in. They was all after me for carve-ups. | |
![]() | Und. Nights 19: He knew how efficient the Surrey police cordons were once a scream was on. | |
![]() | (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 18: The house I had screwed belonged to a maharajah, and the scream was in for £40,000-worth of uncut rubies. | |
![]() | Dead Butler Caper 108: Like I say, all we’ve got to do is wait ’til the scream goes up for this little lot. Then return them to a grateful insurance company. |
10. an appeal against conviction or sentence.
![]() | Lowspeak. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see under sheet n.
In phrases
1. (UK Und.) at the highest estimate.
![]() | Und. Nights 129: To the tune (at full scream) of £15,000. |
2. (US black) with total commitment, no holds barred.
![]() | Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
a person; usu. as a term of address.
![]() | Inimitable Jeeves 125: Hallo, old scream. |