Definition of "rood screen" [rood screen]

• In medieval churches, an often openwork wall-like screen separating the choir from the nave and extending upward to the rood beam. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The eight oak columns of the fan-vaulted rood screen stretched into out-curving branches crowned in a rich, leafy forest canopy, with here and there a face in the leaves."