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Screw up   /skru əp/   Listen
verb
Screw  v. t.  (past & past part. screwed; pres. part. screwing)  
1.
To turn, as a screw; to apply a screw to; to press, fasten, or make firm, by means of a screw or screws; as, to screw a lock on a door; to screw a press.
2.
To force; to squeeze; to press, as by screws. "But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail."
3.
Hence: To practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions. "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."
4.
To twist; to distort; as, to screw his visage. "He screwed his face into a hardened smile."
5.
To examine rigidly, as a student; to subject to a severe examination. (Cant, American Colleges)
To screw out, to press out; to extort.
To screw up,
(a)
to force; to bring by violent pressure.
(b)
to damage by unskillful effort; to bungle; to botch; to mess up; as, he screwed up the contract negotiations, and we lost the deal.
(c)
(intrans.) to fail by unskillful effort, usually causing unpleasant consequences.
To screw in, to force in by turning or twisting. Screw around,
(a)
to act aimlessly or unproductively.
(b)
to commit adultery; to be sexually promiscuous. Screw around with, to operate or make changes on (a machine or device) without expert knowledge; to fiddle with. (Colloq.). >






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Screw up" Quotes from Famous Books



... I should have been. I left to take up my military—accomplishments, for I may not call them 'duties.' But you can hardly forget that I am the only man who ever dared to screw up the Master of Pentecost in his own rooms. While my associates were screwing up the Dean, I was screwing up the Master; it was one of my earliest attempts to be companionable ...
— King John of Jingalo - The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties • Laurence Housman



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