screen test

See also: screentest

English

Alternative forms

• screentest
• screen-test

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

screen test (plural screen tests)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see screen,‎ test; a test of, or involving, a screen.
2. (film) A filmed audition to test (and demonstrate) an actor's screen-acting ability and/or suitability for a particular role.
   • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 10:

     Alan Ladd's wife spotted the budding beauty and suggested that Julie attend a screen test for a bit part in something called The Girl and the Gorilla.

3. (chemistry, pathology) A test for the presence of a particular substance; such a test that by extension tests for a particular organism or medical condition.
4. (violence, slang) Synonym of rough ride
   • 2018 April 10, David E. Barlow, Melissa Hickman Barlow, Police in a Multicultural Society: An American Story, Second Edition‎^[1], Waveland Press, →ISBN, page 287:

     One of the reasons for the charges was knowledge of a tradition among some police of what they called in Baltimore "a rough ride" (Fernandez, 2015). The practice is to place a handcuffed prisoner face-down in the back of a police van without securing him to the seat, and then intentionally driving in a reckless manner to throw the suspect around without any way of protecting himself from injury. When David was in police work, officers used to talk about the old-fashioned "screen test" which used a similar technique. The officer would put the prisoner in the back seat of a patrol car in handcuffs, but not in a seat belt. Then the officer would slam on the brakes of the patrol car so that the prisoner would lunge forward, face first into the screen separating the prisoner from the police officer in the front seat.

Verb

screen test (third-person singular simple present screen tests, present participle screen testing, simple past and past participle screen tested)

1. (transitive and intransitive) To audition via a screen test.
   • 2013, James Ottley, Atlanta History For Cocktail Parties II: Another Round, Lulu.com, page 73:

     According to Garrett, "1,400 candidates were interviewed, 90 were screen tested, 149,000 feet of black and white film and 13,000 feet of Technicolor was shot in those tests."

   • 2015, Eila Mell, Casting Might-Have-Beens, McFarland & Company, page 187:

     Also considered was Carroll Baker. Baker screen tested, but failed to win the part.

   • 2017, Anna Kendrick, Scrappy Little Nobody, Simon & Schuster, page 18:

     They would humble-brag about the last commercial they'd booked or how they'd screen-tested for a TV pilot last week, and their sleazy managers would say, "Our little Portia is a booking machine!"

2. (chemistry, pathology) To test for a particular substance, organism or medical condition by means of a screen test.
   • 2004, West's Hawai'i Reports: Cases Decided in the Supreme Court, Intermediate Court of Appeals, Volume 103, West Publishing Company, page 118:

     He testified Moses' that^{[sic – meaning that Moses']} blood screen tested positive for cocaine metabolites and Moses' urine screen tested positive for cocaine.

3. (violence, slang) To subject (someone) to a screen test.