screeds
screed /skrēd/ I. noun 1. a long speech or piece of writing, typically one regarded as tedious. 2. a leveled layer of material (e.g., cement) applied to a floor or other surface. 3. a strip of plaster or other material placed on a surface as a guide to thickness. II. verb — [with obj.] 1. level (a floor or layer of concrete) with a straight edge using a back and forth motion while moving across the surface. – origin Middle English: probably a variant of the noun shred. The early sense was ‘fragment cut from a main piece,’ then ‘torn strip, tatter,’ whence (via the notion of a long roll or list) sense 1 of the noun.
