How do you use the word "screw" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "screw" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "screw": The screw, the lever, the wedge, the pulley, etc. are called simple machines. He can't be smart if he can screw up something like that.

Screw Meaning

/skɹuː/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA device that has a helical function.

nounA device that has a helical function., A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.

Sentence Examples

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

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

When I turned the screw, water burst out.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

bed know love

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

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

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The carpenter used a long ____ to attach the bracket firmly to the wall.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy." — 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, page 01:

"The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together." — 1984 April 21, Albert Jones, “White Lovers”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

"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:

"This gentleman and the guard seemed to know Sir Pitt very well, and laughed at him a great deal. They both agreed in calling him an old screw; which means a very stingy, avaricious person." — 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

"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, “Add It Up”, in Violent Femmes, performed by Violent Femmes:

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