screw
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /skɹuː/
rhymes: -uː
Forms: form: screws
Etymology: From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scrūva ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word.
more on the etymology of screw
Old French escroue (whence Medieval Latin scrofa (“nut, screwhole”)), is believed to be an adaptation of Latin scrōfa (“sow, female pig”); but this development is not found in other Romance languages. (For change in meaning, compare also Spanish puerca, Portuguese porca, both ‘sow; screw nut’, and is based on the fact that a boar's penis has a screw-like tip, making the sow's vulva equivalent to a screw nut by analogy).
Old Dutch *scrūva possibly derives from Proto-Germanic *skrūbō (“screw”), from *skru- (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keru-, *(s)ker- (“to cut”), and is related to German Schraube (“screw”), Low German schruve, schruwe (“screw”), Dutch schroef (“screw”), West Frisian skroef (“screw”), Danish skrue (“screw”), Swedish skruv (“screw, peg”), Icelandic skrúfa (“screw”).
Compare also Occitan escrofa (“screw nut”), Calabrese scrufina (“screw nut”), which may be borrowings of the Old French word, or parallel developments.
Senses: glosses: A device that has a helical function.
A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.
glosses: A device that has a helical function.
A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a partially or completely threaded shank, sometimes with a threaded point, and a head used to both hold the top material and to drive the screw either directly into a soft material or into a prepared hole.
examples: text: It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.
ref: 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, page 01:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A device that has a helical function.
A ship's propeller.
glosses: A device that has a helical function.
An Archimedes screw.
glosses: A device that has a helical function.
A steam vessel propelled by a screw instead of wheels.
glosses: The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
examples: text: The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together.
ref: 1984 April 21, Albert Jones, “White Lovers”, in Gay Community News, page 4:
text: And that's how it came to pass that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of forty-nine wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning drinking icy cold, Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.
ref: 1994, Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption (film)
text: They both wedged up in his cell and refused to come out. They were hurling abuse at the screws on the other side of the door. As a result they were both shipped out to another jail the following day.
ref: 2000, Reginald Kray, A Way of Life:
glosses: A prison guard.
examples: text: This gentleman and the guard seemed to know Sir Pitt very well, and laughed at him a great deal. They both agreed in calling him an old screw; which means a very stingy, avaricious person.
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
glosses: An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
glosses: An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
examples: text: Why can't I get just one screw? / Believe me, I'd know what to do / But something won't let me make love to you
ref: 1983, Gordon Gano, “Add It Up”, in Violent Femmes, performed by Violent Femmes:
text: “Not for God's sake, for Papá's sake. He's the one who gave Mami a good screw, and then you popped out. Or did you think you were a child of the Immaculate Conception, like the Baby Jesus?
ref: 2001, Bárbara Mujica, Frida: A Novel of Frida Kahlo, Overlook Press, published 2012, →ISBN:
text: A few couples would let selected doggers join in, with the lucky ones managing to get a screw.
ref: 2007, Barry Calvert, Swingers 1, Matador, published 2007, →ISBN, page 85:
text: As she sucked the nicotine deeply into her lungs, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the headboard, enjoying the pleasurable buzz that the combination of a good screw—well, a decent screw—coupled with the nicotine gave.
ref: 2009, Kimberly Kaye Terry, The Sweet Spot, Aphrodisia Books, published 2009, →ISBN, page 28:
glosses: Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
examples: text: If I don't go back to my boy friend he'll be as mad as hell. He's a sulky brute, but Christ, he's a good screw.
ref: 1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 5, in The Razor’s Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section ii, page 211:
text: "Swear it!" Kathleen screamed. "Let her know that she's just another screw. Because, darling, that's all you are. So go on, tell her!"
ref: 1990, Susan Lewis, Stolen Beginnings, HarperPaperbacks, published 1992, →ISBN, page 122:
text: She was just a girl, like any of the girls he had had so easily, just another screw.
ref: 1993, William Gill, Fortune's Child, HarperCollins Canada, published 1994, →ISBN, page 42:
text: Mary was Eli's favorite screw because she was clean, pretty, a good mother, funny, and alway was able to make herself available for their twice a week fucks as easily as he was.
ref: 2009, Sam Moffie, The Book of Eli, Mill City Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 6:
glosses: A casual sexual partner.
examples: text: “I’ll speak to Mrs. Dorman when she comes back, and see if I can’t come to terms with her,” I said. “Perhaps she wants a rise in her screw. It will be all right. Let’s walk up to the church.”
ref: 1887, Edith Nesbit, Man-Size in Marble:
text: A certain amount of "screw" is as necessary for a man as for a billiard-ball.
ref: 1888, Rudyard Kipling, In the Pride of His Youth:
glosses: Salary, wages.
topics: ball-games
billiards
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: Backspin.
examples: text: Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt.
text: 3 Screws and a Pipe
ref: 1847, Henry Mayhew, The Greatest Plague of Life:
glosses: A small quamtity of a material such as salt or tobacco wrapped in twist of paper.
examples: text: […] a gentleman of leisure, who enjoyed himself on a couple of spavined screws […]; both of them, as Stephen said, looked lonely without a gig behind them.
ref: 1937, Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston: Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, London: Faber and Faber, page 155 (Faber Paper 1972 edition):
glosses: An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A straight line in space with which a definite linear magnitude termed the pitch is associated. It is used to express the displacement of a rigid body, which may always be made to consist of a rotation about an axis combined with a translation parallel to that axis.
examples: text: the skeleton screw (Caprella)
text: the sand screw
glosses: An amphipod crustacean.
examples: text: She didn't like my mother, so she made a wax doll and stuck thorns into its legs, and my mother had the screws (rheumatism) in her legs ever since.
ref: 2000, Jacqueline Simpson, Stephen Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore:
glosses: Rheumatism.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Allen screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Archimedean screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Archimedes' screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Archimedes screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: ball screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: ballscrew
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: bed screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: breech screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: cap screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: capstan screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Chicago screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: coach screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: color screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: color-screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: colour screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: differential screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Edison screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: endless screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: eye screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: foot screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: full screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: go screw yourself
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: grub screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: have a loose screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: have a screw loose
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: hex head screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Hindley's screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: interrupted screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: jack screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: jackscrew
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: lead screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: leadscrew
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: lighter screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: limit screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: machine screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: mana-screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: mana screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: News of the Screws
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Phillips screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: polyaxial screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: power screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: put someone under the screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: put the screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: regulating screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: right and left screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Robertson screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: sand-screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw anchor
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
english: bulbs, lamps
translation: bulbs, lamps
word: screw base
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw bolt
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw box
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw cap
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw drive
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screwdriver
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw elevator
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screwene
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw eye
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw head
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screwhead
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw jack
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screwjack
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw key
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw loose
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw machine
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw nail
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-off
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw palm
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw peg
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw picket
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw pile
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-pile lighthouse
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw pine
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw pod mesquite
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw pump
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw shoe
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: Screws of the World
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw stair
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-stone
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw theory
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw thread
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-thread
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw top
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-top
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-type
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-up
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw valve
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw ventilator
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw wrench
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: screw-you
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: self-drilling screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: self-tapping screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: set screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: sheet-metal screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: stage screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: temper screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: the first turn of the screw pays all debts
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: translation screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: turn of the screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: turnscrew
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: turn the screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: twin screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: wall screw-moss
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: water screw
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: waxy screw shell
sense: Terms derived from screw (noun)
word: wood screw
Related terms: bolt
lampholder