screw
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
billiards
games
hobbies
lifestyle
mathematics
nautical
pool
sciences
snooker
soccer
sports
transport
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.
Inflected forms:
form: screws
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: screws
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: screwing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: screwed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: screwed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: screwn
pos: verb
tags: nonstandard
participle
past
rare
Senses:
gloss: A device that has a helical function.
pos: noun
gloss: A device that has a helical function.
pos: noun
gloss: A device that has a helical function.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A device that has a helical function.
pos: noun
gloss: A device that has a helical function.
pos: noun
gloss: The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
pos: noun
gloss: A prison guard.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
examples: The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together.
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.
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.
gloss: An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
pos: noun
tags: US
dated
slang
gloss: Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
pos: noun
tags: slang
vulgar
examples: 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
“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?
A few couples would let selected doggers join in, with the lucky ones managing to get a screw.
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.
gloss: A casual sexual partner.
pos: noun
tags: slang
vulgar
examples: 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.
"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!"
She was just a girl, like any of the girls he had had so easily, just another screw.
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.
gloss: Salary, wages.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
slang
examples: “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.”
A certain amount of "screw" is as necessary for a man as for a billiard-ball.
gloss: Backspin.
pos: noun
gloss: A twist of paper, especially one containing a small quantity of a material such as salt or tobacco.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt.
3 Screws and a Pipe
When the opportunity came the blind man smoothed out the screw of paper that the encounter had left in his hand and read as follows: […]
gloss: An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: […] 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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: An amphipod crustacean.
pos: noun
examples: the skeleton screw (Caprella)
the sand screw
gloss: Rheumatism.
pos: noun
tags: in-plural
informal
with-definite-article
examples: 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.
gloss: To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To have sexual intercourse with.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
slang
vulgar
examples: Somebody told me [...] that she [...] acknowledged to him [...] that Nero [...] had screwed her (meaning had carnal intercourse with plaintiff) up stairs the night before.
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.
"Maybe they weren't screwing, my dear. They were just hanging out, you know." "They were screwing, my dear."
gloss: To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
gloss: To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: […] 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 […]
It is not surprising that the landowner strove to screw his tenants.
gloss: To contort.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He screwed his face into a hardened smile.
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.
gloss: To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To screw back.
pos: verb
gloss: To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.
pos: verb
tags: US
dated
slang
gloss: To leave; to go away; to scram.
pos: verb
tags: US
dated
imperative
intransitive
often
slang
examples: If you don't like it, fuckin' screw! It's Shit Ass Pet Fuckers. That's the way it's going to be.
gloss: Used to express great displeasure with, or contemptuous dismissal of, someone or something.
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
imperative
mildly
transitive
vulgar
examples: Screw those jerks, and screw their stupid rules!
gloss: To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something.
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
transitive
examples: Screw the homework for now.
Screw him, let's run.
Antonyms: unscrew
Related words: bolt
lampholder
Derived words: chopped and screwed
get screwed
go screw yourself
have one's head screwed on
have one's head screwed on right
have one's head screwed on straight
have one's head screwed on the right way
I screw you not
screw about
screw all
screw around
screw away
screwball
screwed, blued and tattooed
screw in
screw-in
screw it
screw off
screw over
screwtape
screwtaping
screw the pooch
screw this
screw this for a game of soldiers
screw this for a lark
screw up
screw up one's courage
screw with
screwy
screw you
would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on
Translations: