/skɹuː/
- A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.
- 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.
- A ship's propeller.
“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 fuss”
- An Archimedes screw.
- A steam vessel propelled by a screw instead of wheels.
- The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
- US, dated, slangAn instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
- archaic, slangSalary, wages.
““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.”
- Backspin.
- datedA small quantity of a material such as salt or tobacco wrapped in twist of paper.
“Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt.”
“3 Screws and a Pipe”
- datedAn old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
“[…] 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.”
- 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.
- An amphipod crustacean.
“the skeleton screw (Caprella)”
“the sand screw”
- in-plural, informal, with-definite-articleRheumatism.
“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.”
- transitiveTo connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
- slang, transitiveTo cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
- transitiveTo extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
“[…] 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”
“It is not surprising that the landowner strove to screw his tenants.”
- transitiveTo contort.
“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 su”
- transitiveTo miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
“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.”
- To screw back.
- US, dated, slangTo examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.
- US, dated, imperative, intransitive, oftenTo leave; to go away; to scram.
“If you don't like it, fuckin' screw! It's Shit Ass Pet Fuckers. That's the way it's going to be.”
- colloquial, transitiveTo give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something.
“Screw the homework for now.”
“Screw him, let's run.”
Formsscrews(plural) · screws(present, singular, third-person) · screwing(participle, present) · screwed(past) · screwed(participle, past) · screwn(nonstandard, participle, past, rare)