screw
Meanings
- 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.
- 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.
- A prison guard.
- An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
- An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
- Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
- A casual sexual partner.
- To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
- To have sexual intercourse with.
- To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
- To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
- To contort.
- To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
- To screw back.
- To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.
- To leave; to go away; to scram.
- Used to express great displeasure with, or contemptuous dismissal of, someone or something.
- To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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 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.