Word: screw Part of Speech: noun 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. A device that has a helical function. 2. A device that has a helical function. 3. A device that has a helical function. Example: 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. 4. A device that has a helical function. 5. A device that has a helical function. 6. The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side. 7. A prison guard. Labels: derogatory, slang Example: The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together. Example: 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. 8. An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint. Labels: derogatory, slang Example: 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. 9. An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor. Labels: US, dated, slang 10. Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing. Labels: slang, vulgar Example: 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 Example: “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? 11. A casual sexual partner. Labels: slang, vulgar Example: 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. Example: "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!" 12. Salary, wages. Labels: archaic, slang Example: “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.” Example: A certain amount of "screw" is as necessary for a man as for a billiard-ball. 13. Backspin. 14. A twist of paper, especially one containing a small quantity of a material such as salt or tobacco. Labels: dated Example: Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt. Example: 3 Screws and a Pipe 15. An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse. Labels: dated Example: […] 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. 16. 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. 17. An amphipod crustacean. Example: the skeleton screw (Caprella) Example: the sand screw 18. Rheumatism. Labels: in-plural, informal, with-definite-article Example: 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.