screw

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.

noun

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.
   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.
   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. 1994, Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption (film)
   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. 2000, Reginald Kray, A Way of Life
4. (slang, derogatory) An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
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.
   Why can't I get just one screw? / Believe me, I'd know what to do / But something won't let me make love to you 1983, Gordon Gano (lyrics and music), “Add It Up”, in Violent Femmes, performed by Violent Femmes
   “Not for God's sake, for Papá's sake. He's the one who gave Mami a good screw, and then you popped out. Or did you think you were a child of the Immaculate Conception, like the Baby Jesus? 2001, Bárbara Mujica, Frida: A Novel of Frida Kahlo, Overlook Press, published 2012
   A few couples would let selected doggers join in, with the lucky ones managing to get a screw. 2007, Barry Calvert, Swingers 1, Matador, published 2007, page 85
   As she sucked the nicotine deeply into her lungs, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the headboard, enjoying the pleasurable buzz that the combination of a good screw—well, a decent screw—coupled with the nicotine gave. 2009, Kimberly Kaye Terry, The Sweet Spot, Aphrodisia Books, published 2009, page 28
7. (vulgar, slang) A casual sexual partner.
   "Swear it!" Kathleen screamed. "Let her know that she's just another screw. Because, darling, that's all you are. So go on, tell her!" 1990, Susan Lewis, Stolen Beginnings, HarperPaperbacks, published 1992, page 122
   She was just a girl, like any of the girls he had had so easily, just another screw. 1993, William Gill, Fortune's Child, HarperCollins Canada, published 1994, page 42
   Mary was Eli's favorite screw because she was clean, pretty, a good mother, funny, and alway was able to make herself available for their twice a week fucks as easily as he was. 2009, Sam Moffie, The Book of Eli, Mill City Press, published 2009, page 6
8. (slang) Salary, 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.” 1887, Edith Nesbit, Man-Size in Marble
   A certain amount of "screw" is as necessary for a man as for a billiard-ball. 1888, Rudyard Kipling, In the Pride of His Youth
9. (billiards) Backspin.
10. (slang) A small packet of tobacco.
    3 Screws and a Pipe 1847, Henry Mayhew, The Greatest Plague of Life
11. (dated) An 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. 1937, Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston: Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, London: Faber and Faber, page 155 (Faber Paper 1972 edition)
12. (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.
13. An amphipod crustacean.
    the skeleton screw (Caprella)
    the sand screw
14. (informal, in the plural, with "the") Rheumatism.
    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. 2000, Jacqueline Simpson, Stephen Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore

verb

1. (transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
2. (transitive, intransitive, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse with.
   Somebody told me … that she … acknowledged to him … that Nero … had screwed her (meaning had carnal intercourse with plaintiff) up stairs the night before. (From Rodebaugh v. Hollingsworth, May, 1855.) 1890, Albert G. Porter, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana
   He had contemplated Pym in all the stages he had grown up with him, drunk with him and worked with him, including a night in Berlin he had totally forgotten until now when they had ended up screwing a couple of army nurses in adjoining rooms. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
   "Maybe they weren't screwing, my dear. They were just hanging out, you know." "They were screwing, my dear." 2014, The Visitors
3. (transitive, slang) To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
4. (transitive) To 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 Poland […] 1720, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture
   It is not surprising that the landowner strove to screw his tenants. 1884, Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages
5. (transitive) To contort.
   He screwed his face into a hardened smile. 1690, John Dryden, Don Sebastian, act 2, scene 1
   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 suddenly emerged from among the boles, his ears flattened, his tail between his legs and his body screwed into a suppliant S. He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most chastened dog I have ever seen. 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter V, in The Land That Time Forgot
6. (soccer, transitive) To 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. February 5, 2011, Chris Whyatt, “Wolverhampton 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC
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.
   If you don't like it, fuckin' screw! It's Shit Ass Pet Fuckers. That's the way it's going to be. c. 2009, Louis CK, Shit Ass Pet Fuckers