screamer
/ˈskriːmə
/noun
1A person or thing that makes a screaming sound: the screamer’s screams choked off into a gurgling sob...
- The screamer, whoever it was, sounded a little like Lynn.
- He has surprisingly done everything the unilateralist screamers assured us he would not do; namely, take every precautionary step the UN has asked him to take.
- As such, he confounds modern-day screamers on both the left and the right for whom the warrior code is unintelligible.
2 informal A thing remarkable for speed or impact: he won a screamer of a 500 cc final...
- After all, that first-generation Pentium PC that seemed like such a screamer when you bought it probably went out in the inorganic collection several years ago.
- Provided that you can pickup the X850XT-PE, coupled with a fast system, you'll have a screamer of a gaming rig.
- A rear engine 500 cc screamer with one central headlight, they sold 16,000 of them with the tin body but also quite a few woven ones.
2.1An extremely fast ball or shot: he sent two screamers past the Oxford goalkeeper...
- They increased their lead after 50 minutes when John Butcher released a screamer of a shot that flew into the net from 20-yards out.
- Danny Murphy seems to be an 100% a game player, which is a valuable asset, I remember him scoring a couple of screamers past Leeds last season.
- With very little back-lift, Pires hits a screamer.
2.2chiefly US A sensational or very large headline: his death caused a front-page screamer...
- His column in the Times will appear under a screamer: ‘Athens bomb dropped: six into four won't go.’
- Curiously, they were the only newspaper to grasp this story, which splashed under one of their extremely long screamers NOW IT'S THE FRANKENFISH!
2.3 dated A thing that causes screams of laughter: the first time the play was performed it was a screamer...
- After a somewhat creepy beginning down on the farm, the film is just a screamer.
3A large goose-like South American waterbird with a short bill, a sharp bony spur on each wing, and a harsh honking call.
- Family Anhimidae: two genera and three species.
Phrases
two-pot screamer