Collins English-English Dictionary

screw [skruː]

1. 1. n a device used for fastening materials together, consisting of a threaded and usually tapered shank that has a slotted head by which it may be rotated so as to cut its own thread as it bores through the material

2. 2. n screw-bolt a threaded cylindrical rod that engages with a similarly threaded cylindrical hole; bolt

3. 3. n a thread in a cylindrical hole corresponding with that on the bolt or screw with which it is designed to engage

4. 4. n anything resembling a screw in shape or spiral form

5. 5. n a twisting movement of or resembling that of a screw

6. 6. n null screw-back

7. 7. n [billiards] [snooker] a stroke in which the cue ball recoils or moves backward after striking the object ball, made by striking the cue ball below its centre

8. 8. n the motion resulting from this stroke

9. 9. n another name for propeller

10. 10. n [slang] a prison guard

11. 11. n [Brit] [slang] salary, wages, or earnings

12. 12. n [Brit] a small amount of salt, tobacco, etc, in a twist of paper

13. 13. n [slang] a person who is mean with money

14. 14. n [slang] an old, unsound, or worthless horse

15. 15. n [often plural] [slang] force or compulsion (esp in the phrase put the screws on)

16. 16. n [slang] sexual intercourse

17. 17. vt. [tr] to rotate (a screw or bolt) so as to drive it into or draw it out of a material

18. 18. vt. [tr] to cut a screw thread in (a rod or hole) with a tap or die or on a lathe

19. 19. vt. to turn or cause to turn in the manner of a screw

20. 20. vt. [tr] to attach or fasten with a screw or screws

21. 21. vt. [tr] [informal] to take advantage of; cheat

22. 22. vt. [tr; often foll by up] to distort or contort

    he screwed his face into a scowl

23. 23. vt. [tr, often foll by from or out of] to coerce or force out of; extort

24. 24. vt. [slang] to have sexual intercourse (with)

25. 25. vt. [tr] [slang] to burgle

26. 26. vt. See also screw up

27. 27. vt. [Etymology] C15: from French escroe, from Medieval Latin scrofa screw, from Latin: sow, presumably because the thread of the screw is like the spiral of the sow's tail

28. 28. vt. screw back to impart a screw to (a ball)

29. 29. adj [Usage] The use of this otherwise utilitarian word in a sexual sense, though recorded in an 18th century slang dictionary, does not appear to have really taken off until well into the 20th. Although a classic example of the anatomical metaphor for the sex act seen from the male point of view, it can be used as a transitive verb by women, which suggests that the metaphor is all but dead