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Added 9 October 2026

screw

/ˈskɹuː/ noun

Latin root: scrōfa Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about screw at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Someone who guards prisoners.
A simple machine of the inclined-plane type consisting of a spirally threaded cylindrical rod that engages with a similarly threaded hole.
A propeller with several angled blades that rotates to push against water or air.

verb

Have sexual intercourse with.
This student sleeps with everyone in her dorm
Turn like a screw.
Cause to penetrate, as with a circular motion.
drive in screws or bolts

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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