Word: screw Part of Speech: verb 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. Pronunciation: /ˈskɹuː/, /ˈskɹʉw/, /ˈskɹu/, /ˈskɹʉː/, /ˈskɾɪʊ/ 1. To connect or assemble pieces using a screw. Labels: transitive 2. To have sexual intercourse with. Labels: ambitransitive, slang, vulgar Example: Somebody told me [...] that she [...] acknowledged to him [...] that Nero [...] had screwed her (meaning had carnal intercourse with plaintiff) up stairs the night before. Example: He had contemplated Pym in all the stages he had grown up with him, drunk with him and worked with him, including a night in Berlin he had totally forgotten until now when they had ended up screwing a couple of army nurses in adjoining rooms. 3. To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation. Labels: slang, transitive 4. To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on. Labels: transitive Example: […] our country landlords, by unmeasurable screwing and racking their tenants, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France, or the vassals in Germany and Poland […] Example: It is not surprising that the landowner strove to screw his tenants. 5. To contort. Labels: transitive Example: He screwed his face into a hardened smile. Example: I had been calling Nobs in the meantime and was about to set out in search of him, fearing, to tell the truth, to do so lest I find him mangled and dead among the trees of the acacia grove, when he suddenly emerged from among the boles, his ears flattened, his tail between his legs and his body screwed into a suppliant S. He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most chastened dog I have ever seen. 6. To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot. Labels: transitive Example: The visitors could have added an instant second, but Rooney screwed an ugly attempt high into Hennessey's arms after Berbatov cleverly found the unmarked England striker. 7. To screw back. 8. To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination. Labels: US, dated, slang 9. To leave; to go away; to scram. Labels: US, dated, imperative, intransitive, often, slang Example: If you don't like it, fuckin' screw! It's Shit Ass Pet Fuckers. That's the way it's going to be. 10. Used to express great displeasure with, or contemptuous dismissal of, someone or something. Labels: colloquial, imperative, mildly, transitive, vulgar Example: Screw those jerks, and screw their stupid rules! 11. To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something. Labels: colloquial, transitive Example: Screw the homework for now. Example: Screw him, let's run.