screw
- 01 A2 Elementary
n.a thin, pointed piece of metal with a raised spiral line around it, used to join things together.
n.a metal fastener with a helical thread, designed to be driven into surfaces by rotation.
Simple“He used a screwdriver to tighten the loose screw in the door handle.”
In context“The carpenter selected a wood screw with a countersunk head to ensure a flush finish on the cabinet door.”
Synonymsboltfastener - 02 C1 Advanced
n.a slang word for a prison guard.
n.a derogatory slang term for a prison officer or guard.
Simple“The inmates waited for the screw to finish his rounds before they started talking.”
In context“In the gritty prison drama, the protagonist frequently clashes with a particularly corrupt screw who controls the cell block.”
- 03 A2 Elementary
v.to fasten or tighten something by turning it.
v.to attach, tighten, or adjust by means of a screw or a twisting motion.
Simple“Make sure you screw the lid on tightly so the milk doesn't spill.”
In context“The technician had to screw the mounting bracket into the wall before the heavy monitor could be safely attached.”
- 04 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to treat someone unfairly or cheat them out of something.
v.to cheat, deceive, or treat someone with gross unfairness, especially in a financial or professional context.
Simple“The company really screwed its employees by cutting their pensions without warning.”
In context“He felt the dealership had screwed him over by hiding the car's mechanical history until after the contract was signed.”
- 05 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.a rude way to say you do not care about someone or something.
v.used in the imperative to express contemptuous dismissal or total lack of concern for the subject.
Simple“Screw this, I'm going home because nobody is listening to my ideas anyway.”
In context“After months of unpaid overtime, she finally decided, 'Screw it,' and handed in her resignation without a backup plan.”
- 06 C1 Advanced
v.a vulgar word for having sex.
v.to engage in sexual intercourse; widely considered vulgar and inappropriate for polite conversation.
Simple“They were caught screwing in the back of the car.”
In context“The film was rated R primarily due to several graphic scenes of the characters screwing.”
Synonymsmatecopulate - 07 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to twist your face into an expression of dislike or effort.
v.to contort or twist one's facial features, typically to express distaste, concentration, or pain.
Simple“The child screwed up his face when he tasted the sour lemon.”
In context“She screwed her eyes shut, trying to remember the exact sequence of events from the night before.”
Synonyms
“Devices rely on glue and awkwardly placed screws to accomplish this, making the internals a little like metal spaghetti.”
“Remove the 11 Philips-head screws on the bottom of the laptop, and its bottom pries up with a bit of pressure.”
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.