Screw

Screw, skrōō, n. a cylinder with a spiral groove or ridge on either its outer or inner surface, used as a fastening and as a mechanical power: a screw-propeller: a turn or twist to one side: a penny packet of tobacco put up in a paper twisted at both ends: a stingy fellow, an extortioner, a skinflint: a broken-winded horse: pressure: (U.S. slang) a professor who requires students to work hard: salary, [Image: Screwbolt.] wages.—v.t. to apply a screw to: to press with a screw: to twist: to oppress by extortion: to force: to squeeze.—ns. Screw′-bolt, a bolt threaded at one end for a nut; Screw′-cut′ter, a hand-tool for cutting screws; Screw′-driv′er, an instrument for driving or turning screw-nails.—adj. Screwed (slang), tipsy, tight.—ns. Screw′-el′evator, a dentist's instrument: a surgeon's instrument for forcing open the jaws; Screw′er.—adj. Screw′ing, exacting: close.—ns. Screw′-jack (same as Jackscrew); Screw′-key, a lever for turning the nut of a screw; Screw′-machine′, a machine for making screws; Screw′-nail, a nail made in the form of a screw; Screw′-pile, a pile forced into the ground, and held there by a peculiar kind of screw at the lower extremity; Screw′-pine, a plant of the tropical genus Pandanus, or of the screw-pine family—from the screw-like arrangement of the clustered leaves; Screw′-plate, a plate of steel in which are a [Image: Screwpress.] graduated series of holes, with internal screws used in forming external screws; Screw′-pod, the screw-bean Screw′-press, a press in which the force is applied by means of a screw; Screw′-propel′ler, a screw or spiral-bladed wheel at the stern of steam-vessels for propelling them: a steamer so propelled; Screw′-rudd′er, an application of the screw for the purpose of steering; Screw′-stair, a spiral staircase: a hanging stair; Screw′-steam′er, a steamer propelled by a screw; Screw′stone, a wheelstone: a fossil screw; Screw′-thread, the spiral ridge on the cylinder of a male screw, or on the inner surface of a female screw; Screw′-valve, a stop-cock opened and shut by means of a screw instead of a spigot; Screw′-ven′tilator, a ventilating [Image: Screwwrench.] apparatus; Screw′-worm, the larva of a blow-fly; Screw′-wrench, a tool for grasping the flat sides of the heads of large screws.—adj. Screw′y, exacting: close: worthless.—A screw loose, something defective. [Earlier scrue. O. Fr. escrou, prob. L. scrobem, accus. of scrobs, a hole; or Low Ger. schruve, Dut. schroef, Ice. skrufa, Ger. schraube.]