# screwed
## English
### Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “The reference given does not support most of the claims.”) From screw +‎ -ed.
* The modern sense of screwed originates in the mid-1600s with a sense of to screw as a means of "exerting pressure or coercion", probably in reference to instruments of torture (e.g. thumbscrews). It quickly gained a wider general sense of "in a bind; in unfortunate inescapable circumstances". When the verb screw gained a sexual connotation in the early 1700s, it joined the long-lasting association of sexual imagery as a metaphor for domination, leading to screwed gaining synonyms like fucked and shagged. On a more general note, this is a prime example of the frequent tendency for verb participles to evolve into participial adjectives.
* The sense meaning "intoxicated" is from the early 1800s, and is associated with the term screwy, and the idiom to have a screw loose.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -uːd

### Adjective

screwed (comparative more screwed, superlative most screwed)
* (slang, mildly vulgar) Beset with unfortunate circumstances that seem difficult or impossible to overcome; in imminent danger.
    They found out about our betrayal, so now we're screwed.
* (slang, British, dated) Intoxicated.
** 1889, Belgravia, volume 70, page 15:" […] Did you know that my husband came home intoxicated?" Mrs. Brown laughed. "Oh, not so bad as that, surely! Only a little 'screwed.' George was 'quisby,' too. But then its Christmas, you know."
** 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, pages 217–218:Besides they were dreadfully afraid that Freddy Malins might turn up screwed. They would not wish for worlds that any of Mary Jane's pupils should see him under the influence; […]

#### Usage notes

* Often employed as a bowdlerization, or substitution, for fucked.

#### Usage notes

Because the sexual act as a metaphor for domination is a frequent association for the term 'screwed', it is potentially offensive in polite circles.

#### Synonyms

* (beset, vulgar): fucked, dicked, shagged (British); see also Thesaurus:in trouble
* (intoxicated): See Thesaurus:drunk

#### Derived terms

* screwed and chopped
* screwed, blued and tattooed / screwed, glued and tattooed
* screwedness

#### Related terms

* screw over

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### See also

* screwed up

### Verb

screwed
* simple past and past participle of screw
    He screwed the boards together tightly.
    I got screwed at the swap meet yesterday.
** 1641, Richard Chambers (merchant), quoted in Hannis Taylor, The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution: An Historical Treatise, Part II: The After-Growth of the Constitution, H.O. Houghton & Company (1889), p. 274,
    […] merchants are in no part of the world so screwed as in England. In Turkey, they have more encouragement.

### References

* 1 2 Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “screw”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “screw”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* decrews