screw
Forms
- Plural
- screws
- present (v1)
- screw
- past (v2)
- screwed
- past participle (v3)
- screwed
- present participle
- screwing
- 3rd person singular
- screws
Definitions
1.A device that has a helical function.
- 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.
2.A prison guard.(slang)
- The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together.
- 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.
3.An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.(slang)
- 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.
4.The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
1.To have sexual intercourse with.(slang)
- "Maybe they weren't screwing, my dear. They were just hanging out, you know." "They were screwing, my dear."
- Somebody told me [..] that she [..] acknowledged to him [..] that Nero [..] had screwed her (meaning had carnal intercourse with plaintiff) up stairs the night before.
2.To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.(slang)
3.To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
4.To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
- It is not surprising that the landowner strove to screw his tenants.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3020
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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