SCREWING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Screwing

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/skrˈuɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Screwing n. A. & n. from Screw, v. t.

Screwing machine. See Screw machine, under Screw.

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.). >

Screw v. i.

1.

To use violent means in making exactions; to be oppressive or exacting.

2.

To turn one's self uneasily with a twisting motion; as, he screws about in his chair.

See images of 'Screwing'

Etymology of 'Screwing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Screwing" Quotes from Famous Books

... time she could in screwing the music-stool to the right height for her little figure. It was no sooner up high enough than she found she wanted it to go down, and then it would go down too low. At last it was just as right as it could be, and there was nothing more ...

— Terry - Or, She ought to have been a Boy • Rosa Mulholland

... said, and he filled the pewters up again. "It's up to me," and he set to work boring out the glasses with his rag, as if he was short-handed and the bar was crowded with customers, and screwing up his face into what I suppose he considered an innocent or unconscious expression. The girl began to sidle in and out with a smart frock ...

— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson

... upon the ground, regardless alike of the tremulous hold which Mr Brass maintained on one side of his cravat, and of the firmer grasp of Miss Sally upon the other; although this latter detention was in itself no small inconvenience, as that fascinating woman, besides screwing her knuckles inconveniently into his throat from time to time, had fastened upon him in the first instance with so tight a grip that even in the disorder and distraction of his thoughts he could not divest himself of an uneasy sense of choking. Between the ...

— The Old Curiosity Shop • Charles Dickens

... he never runs against a porter; and he who clears the way for a lady, will be sure never to rub against a market woman, or jostle an apple-seller's board. If accused of beating down his laundress to the lowest fraction, of making his boot-black call a dozen times for his pay, of higgling and screwing a fish boy till he takes off two cents, or of threatening to discharge his seamstress unless she will work for a shilling a day, how easy to brand it all as slander, by showing that he pays his minister in advance, is generous in ...

— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... of equal difficulty to keep it going. Though fitted by competent workmen, it often would not go at all. Then the foreman of the factory at which it was made was sent for, and he would almost live beside the engine for a month or more; and after easing her here and screwing her up there, putting in a new part and altering an old one, packing the piston and tightening the valves, the machine would at length begot to work.[17] Now the case is altogether different. The perfection of modern ...

— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles

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