screw
UK /ˈskɹuː/ · US /ˈskɹu/ noun, verb
Forms screws screwing screwed screwn
- noun A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.
- noun 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.
- noun (nautical) A ship's propeller.
- noun An Archimedes screw.
- noun A steam vessel propelled by a screw instead of wheels.
- noun The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
- noun (slang, derogatory) A prison guard.
- noun (slang, derogatory) An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
- verb (transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
- verb (ambitransitive, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse with.
- verb (transitive, slang) To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
- verb (transitive) To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
- verb (transitive) To contort.
- verb (soccer, transitive) To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
- verb (billiards, snooker, pool) To screw back.
- verb (US, slang, dated) To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.
Synonyms
screw up accouple affix assemble associate attach bewed bind clasp clinch combine conglomerate conglutinate conjoin connect construct couple entwine fay fix prison guard jailer jailor gaoler turnkey screw propeller fuck fucking screwing ass
Antonyms
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.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A cylinder, or a cylindrical perforation, having a continuous rib, called the thread, winding round it spirally at a constant inclination, so as to leave a continuous spiral groove, between one turn and the next, --used chiefly for producing, when revolved, motion or pressure in the direction of its axis, by the sliding of the threads of the cylinder in the grooves between the threads of the perforation adapted to it, the former being distinguished as the external, or male screw, or, more usually the screw; the latter as the internal, or female screw, or, more usually, the nut.
- noun Specifically, a kind of nail with a spiral thread and a head with a nick to receive the end of the screw-driver. Screws are much used to hold together pieces of wood or to fasten something; --called also wood screws, and screw nails. See also Screw bolt, below.
- verb To turn, as a screw; to apply a screw to; to press, fasten, or make firm, by means of a screw or screws; as, to screw a lock on a door; to screw a press.
- verb To force; to squeeze; to press, as by screws.
Etymology [OE. scrue, OF. escroue, escroe, female screw, F. écrou, L. scrobis a ditch, trench, in LL., the hole made by swine in rooting; cf. D. schroef a screw, G. schraube, Icel. skr.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “screw”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details