English Online Dictionary. What means screw? What does screw mean?
English
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.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /skɹuː/
- Rhymes: -uː
Noun
screw (plural screws)
- A device that has a helical function.
- 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.
- (nautical) A ship's propeller.
- 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.
- (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.
- (slang, derogatory) An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
- (US, slang, dated) An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
- (vulgar, slang) Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
- (vulgar, slang) A casual sexual partner.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:casual sexual partner
- (slang) Salary, wages.
- (snooker, billiards) Backspin.
- (slang) A small packet of tobacco.
- (dated) An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
- (mathematics) 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.
- (informal, in the plural, with "the") Rheumatism.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- bolt
- lampholder
Verb
screw (third-person singular simple present screws, present participle screwing, simple past screwed, past participle screwed or (rare, nonstandard) screwn)
- (transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
- Synonyms: screw up; see also Thesaurus:join
- (ambitransitive, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse with.
- Synonyms: (vulgar, slang) fuck, (Australia) root, (British) shag; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
- (transitive, slang) To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
- Synonyms: (vulgar, slang) fuck, screw over
- (transitive) To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
- (transitive) To contort.
- Synonyms: twist, writhe
- (soccer, transitive) To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
- (billiards, snooker, pool) To screw back.
- (US, slang, dated) To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.
- (intransitive, US, slang, often imperative, dated) To leave; to go away; to scram. [from early to mid 20th c.]
- (colloquial, transitive, imperative, vulgar) Used to express great displeasure with, or contemptuous dismissal of, someone or something.
- Synonyms: bugger, eff, to hell with
- (Should we delete(+) this sense?) (colloquial, transitive) To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something.
- Synonyms: (vulgar, slang) fuck, forget, (Australia) sack
Antonyms
- unscrew
Derived terms
Translations
References
Anagrams
- Crews, crews