English
screw
Etymology

From Middle English screw, scrue; apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue, from Latin scrōfa through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis.

Old French escroue (whence Medieval Latin scrofa), is believed to be an adaptation of Latin scrōfa; 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, from *skru- ("to cut"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keru-, *(s)ker- ("to cut"), and is related to German Schraube, Low German schruve, schruwe ("screw"), Dutch schroef, Western Frisian skroef, Danish skrue, Swedish skruv, Icelandic skrúfa.

Compare also Occitan escrofa, Calabrese scrufina ("screw nut"), which may be borrowings of the Old French word, or parallel developments.

Pronunciation Noun

screw (plural screws)

  1. A device that has a helical function.
    1. A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.
    2. 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.
    3. (nautical) A ship's propeller.
      • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC ↗, page 01 ↗:
        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. An Archimedes screw.
    5. A steam vessel propelled by a screw instead of wheels.
  2. The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
  3. (slang, derogatory) A prison guard.
    • 1994, Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption (film):
      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.
    • 2000, Reginald Kray, A Way of Life:
      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.
  4. (slang, derogatory) An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  5. (US, slang, dated) An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
  6. (vulgar, slang) Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
  7. (vulgar, slang) A casual sexual partner.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:casual sexual partner
    • 1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 5, in The Razor's Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC ↗, section ii, page 211 ↗:
      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.
  8. (slang) Salary, wages.
    • 1887, Edith Nesbit, Man-Size in Marble:
      “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.”
    • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, In the Pride of His Youth:
      A certain amount of "screw" is as necessary for a man as for a billiard-ball.
  9. (billiards) Backspin.
  10. (slang) A small packet of tobacco.
    • 1847, Henry Mayhew, The Greatest Plague of Life:
      3 Screws and a Pipe
  11. (dated) An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
  12. (math) 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.
  13. An amphipod crustacean.
    the skeleton screw (Caprella)
    the sand screw
  14. (informal, in the plural, with "the") Rheumatism.
    • 2000, Jacqueline Simpson, Stephen Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore:
      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.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

screw (screws, present participle screwing; simple past and past participle screwed)

  1. (transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
    Synonyms: screw up, Thesaurus:join
  2. (ambitransitive, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse with.
    Synonyms: fuck, root, shag, Thesaurus:copulate with
  3. (transitive, slang) To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
    Synonyms: fuck, screw over
  4. (transitive) To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
  5. (transitive) To contort.
    Synonyms: twist, writhe
  6. (soccer, transitive) To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
  7. (billiards, snooker, pool) To screw back.
  8. (US, slang, dated) To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.
  9. (intransitive, US, slang, often, imperative, dated) To leave; to go away; to scram. [from early to mid 20th c.]
  10. (colloquial, transitive, often, derogatory) Used to express great displeasure with, or contemptuous dismissal of, someone or something.
    Synonyms: bugger, eff, to hell with, screw
    Screw those jerks, and screw their stupid rules!
  11. (colloquial, transitive) To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something.
    Synonyms: fuck, forget, sack
    Screw the homework for now.
    Screw him, let's run.
Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations

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