an accurately levelled strip of material placed on a wall or floor as guide for the even application of plaster or concrete
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Screed \Screed\ (skr[=e]d), n. [Prov. E., a shred, the border of a cap. See {Shred}.] 1. (Arch.) (a) A strip of plaster of the thickness proposed for the coat, applied to the wall at intervals of four or five feet, as a guide. (b) A wooden straightedge used to lay across the plaster screed, as a limit for the thickness of the coat.
2. A fragment; a portion; a shred. [Scot.]
Screed \Screed\, n. [See 1st {Screed}. For sense 2 cf. also Gael. sgread an outcry.] 1. A breach or rent; a breaking forth into a loud, shrill sound; as, martial screeds.
2. An harangue; a long tirade on any subject.
The old carl gae them a screed of doctrine; ye might have heard him a mile down the wind. --Sir W. Scott.
But "Life During Wartime" isn't an ideological screed masquerading as fiction.