different between screwy vs screw

English

Etymology

screw +? -y. 1820, original meaning “tipsy, slightly drunk”; meaning “crazy, ridiculous” first recorded 1887.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sk?u?.i/
• Rhymes: -u?i

Adjective

screwy (comparative screwier or more screwy, superlative screwiest or most screwy)

1. (informal) Crazy; silly; ridiculous

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:insane
2. (archaic, informal) Tipsy; slightly drunk.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk

   • 1868, Memorials of a theological college. London: Houlston & Wright. 1868. p9

     "A tipsy man," said Spearman, "is generally noisy ; and I confess I was screwy on Wednesday."

3. (archaic) Exacting; extortionate; close.
4. (archaic) Worthless.

Quotations

• 1840, Hal of the West. Brilliant run with the Puckeridge hounds. The Sporting Magazine. March, 1840. Vol XX, No 119. p383

  " I saw my hearty out of the yard, with his pink peeping out of his Macintosh, on his screwy old black horse, and I heard from my fair waiter that he had been vaunting that he would lick us all into fits."

• 1877, Edward Peacock, English Dialect Society. A glossary of words used in the wapentakes of Manley and Corringham. London: Trubner & Co. 1877. p120

  "Screwy [skroo'i], adj. mean ; stingy ; parsimonious. Alto, slightly intoxicated."

Related terms

• have a screw loose
• screwball
• screw up

English

Etymology

From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scr?fa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scr?va ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?u?/

Noun

screw (plural screws)

1. A device that has a helical function.
   1. A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.
   2. A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a partially or completely threaded shank, sometimes with a threaded point, and a head used to both hold the top material and to drive the screw either directly into a soft material or into a prepared hole.
   3. (nautical) A ship's propeller.

      • 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.

   4. An Archimedes screw.
   5. A steam vessel propelled by a screw instead of wheels.
2. The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
3. (slang, derogatory) A prison guard.
   • 1994, Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption (film):

     And that's how it came to pass that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of forty-nine wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning drinking icy cold, Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.

   • 2000, Reginald Kray, A Way of Life:

     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.

4. (slang, derogatory) An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 8:

     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.

5. (US, slang, dated) An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
6. (vulgar, slang) Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
   • 2001, Bárbara Mujica, Frida: A Novel of Frida Kahlo, Overlook Press (2012), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     “Not for God's sake, for Papá's sake. He's the one who gave Mami a good screw, and then you popped out. Or did you think you were a child of the Immaculate Conception, like the Baby Jesus?

   • 2007, Barry Calvert, Swingers 1, Matador (2007), ?ISBN, page 85:

     A few couples would let selected doggers join in, with the lucky ones managing to get a screw.

   • 2009, Kimberly Kaye Terry, The Sweet Spot, Aphrodisia Books (2009), ?ISBN, page 28:

     As she sucked the nicotine deeply into her lungs, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the headboard, enjoying the pleasurable buzz that the combination of a good screw—well, a decent screw—coupled with the nicotine gave.

7. (vulgar, slang) A casual sexual partner.
   • 1944, W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge, Vintage International (2003), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     “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.”

   • 1990, Susan Lewis, Stolen Beginnings, HarperPaperbacks (1992), ?ISBN, page 122:

     "Swear it!" Kathleen screamed. "Let her know that she's just another screw. Because, darling, that's all you are. So go on, tell her!"

   • 1993, William Gill, Fortune's Child, HarperCollins Canada (1994), ?ISBN, page 42:

     She was just a girl, like any of the girls he had had so easily, just another screw.

   • 2009, Sam Moffie, The Book of Eli, Mill City Press (2009), ?ISBN, page 6:

     Mary was Eli's favorite screw because she was clean, pretty, a good mother, funny, and alway was able to make herself available for their twice a week fucks as easily as he was.

8. (slang) Salary, wages.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, "In the Pride of His Youth"

     A certain amount of "screw" is as necessary for a man as for a billiard-ball.

9. (billiards) Backspin.
10. (slang) A small packet of tobacco.
    • 1847, Henry Mayhew, The Greatest Plague of Life

      3 Screws and a Pipe

11. (dated) An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
12. (mathematics) A straight line in space with which a definite linear magnitude termed the pitch is associated. It is used to express the displacement of a rigid body, which may always be made to consist of a rotation about an axis combined with a translation parallel to that axis.
13. An amphipod crustacean.

14. (informal, in the plural, with "the") Rheumatism.
    • 2000, Jacqueline Simpson, Stephen Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore

      She didn't like my mother, so she made a wax doll and stuck thorns into its legs, and my mother had the screws (rheumatism) in her legs ever since.

Synonyms

• (casual sexual partner): see also Thesaurus:casual sexual partner.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• bolt
• lampholder

Verb

screw (third-person singular simple present screws, present participle screwing, simple past and past participle screwed)

1. (transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
2. (transitive, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse with.
3. (transitive, slang) To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
4. (transitive) To practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
5. (transitive) To contort.
6. (soccer, transitive) To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
7. (billiard, snooker, pool) To screw back.
8. (US, slang, dated) To examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.

Synonyms

• (connect or assemble pieces): screw up; see also Thesaurus:join
• (have sexual intercourse with): fuck (taboo, slang), root (Australia), shag (British); see also Thesaurus:copulate with
• (cheat someone): fuck (taboo, slang), screw over
• (practice extortion upon): extort
• (contort): twist, writhe

Antonyms

• unscrew

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Crews, crews