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Screw up   /skru əp/   Listen
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.). >






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Screw up" Quotes from Famous Books



... move the tail-piece back until the head end is over the center of the hole nearest the end of the block, then the peg will slip into second hole from the head end of the tail-piece, and into a corresponding T-rail hole, pinning the two together. Insert wood and screw up dead center ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... and providing for casualties even the least likely, she saw him dealing with the tenantry on the property; and in the same spirit that he made allowance for sickness here and misfortune there, he would be as prompt to screw up a lagging tenant to the last penny, and secure the landlord in the share ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever



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