screw

I. vb

1.

to have sex (with). This use of the word was recorded in Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785. It may be a direct metaphor or may be influenced by the archaic use of screw to mean a key (turn-ing in a lock). Since the late 1960s the verb can refer to the sexual act from the woman's point of view as well as the man's. The word owed much of its popu-larity to the fact that it is a synonym for fuck which is nevertheless acceptable in the media and what used to be referred to as 'mixed company'.

2a.

to take advantage of, defraud, cheat or treat unfairly

2b.

to ruin or spoil. An extension of the previous sense paralleled by fuck, bug-ger, etc.

3.

British

to stare (at). In working-class

London speech, especially among skin-heads of the late 1960s, the question 'Who're you screwin'?' was often the prelude to violence. It has been suggested that this use of the word is in origin a shortening of scrutinise, but this seems hard to credit. Screwing up one's eyes or metaphorically boring a hole into someone are other possibilities.

► 'Villains call it clocking in Leeds, eye-balling in Manchester and screwing in London's East End... It came as a shock: juries can be intimidated by a stare.' (Sunday Times, 5 June 1988)

4.

British

to rob, in the argot of the underworld

II. n

1a.

► an act of sexual intercourse

1b.

► a sexual partner

Both usages derive from the verb form.

2.

British

a prison guard. This is the standard term applied to prison officers by inmates since the 19th century. It derives from the archaic use of the same word to mean key. Thus 'turnscrew', later shortened to screw, was a synonym for 'turnkey'.

► A banner was draped from the cell win-dows reading: Support the screws - Old Bill out.' (Guardian, 31 January 1989)

3.

an income, wage or salary. In this sense, first recorded in the mid-19th century, the word almost invariably occurs as part of the common phrase '(on) a good screw'.