screw

CEFRB1

/skɹuː/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A metal fastener with a spiral thread.

  2. 02

    verb

    To fasten something by turning a screw.

Examples

  • He can't be smart if he can screw up something like that.

  • The screw, the lever, the wedge, the pulley, etc. are called simple machines.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A device that has a helical function.

  2. A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.

  3. 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.

More examples

In context

  • When I turned the screw, water burst out.

  • Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt.

  • 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 o...

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He used a blank to fasten the two pieces of wood together securely.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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 lang...