screw
A2Meanings
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1
verb
cause to penetrate, as with a circular motion
drive in screws or bolts
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2
noun
A prison guard.
The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together.
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3
noun
An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
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.
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4
noun
Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
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
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5
noun
A casual sexual partner.
If I don't go back to my boy friend he'll be as mad as hell. He's a sulky brute, but Christ, he's a good screw.
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6
noun
Salary, wages.
“I’ll speak to Mrs. Dorman when she comes back, and see if I can’t come to terms with her,” I said. “Perhaps she wants a rise in her screw. It will be all right. Let’s walk up to the church.”
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7
noun
A twist of paper, especially one containing a small quantity of a material such as salt or tobacco.
Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt.
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8
noun
An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
[…] a gentleman of leisure, who enjoyed himself on a couple of spavined screws […]; both of them, as Stephen said, looked lonely without a gig behind them.
Etymology
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 adap…