subs. (colloquial).—1. An extortioner; a miser. As verb. = to coerce into paying or saving money, or making a promise, yielding one’s opinion, vote, person, &c.: also TO SCREW UP (or OUT), and TO PUT ON (or UNDER or TURN) THE SCREW (B. E., GROSE); SCREWY (or SCREWING) = mean.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. SCREW, TO SCREW ONE UP, to exact upon one, or Squeeze one in a Bargain or Reckoning.
1781. COWPER, Truth, 385. Strained to the last SCREW he can bear.
1841. E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons, I. 302 [BARTLETT]. Love strains the heart-strings of the human race, and not unfrequently PUTS THE SCREWS ON so hard as to snap them asunder.
1847. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, viii. They both agreed in calling him an old SCREW, which means a very stingy, avaricious person.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 319. Mechanics are capital customers … they’re not so SCREWY.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xliv. Did you ever hear of me SCREWING? No, I spend my money like a man.
1857. New York Times, 15 Sept. Such TURNS OF THE SCREWS as we have had for the last three weeks, if continued, would bring almost every mercantile house in New York to wreck.
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, xxvii. However I will PUT THE SCREW ON them. They shall have nothing from me till they treat her better.
1860. Cornhill Magazine, II. 381. He was an immense SCREW at school.
1866. G. ELIOT, Felix Holt, xi. A SCREWING fellow, by what I understand—a domineering fellow—who would expect men to do as he liked without paying them for it.
1869. GREENWOOD, The Seven Curses of London, 170. If I entrust my tailor with stuff for a suit, and it afterwards comes to my knowledge that he has SCREWED an extra waistcoat out of it.
1874. E. WOOD, Johnny Ludlow, 1st S., No. XVII. 301. For once in his SCREWY life, old Brown was generous.
1876. M. E. BRADDON, Joshua Haggard, xxx. He were so hard upon ’em, and that SCREWY, never a drop of milk or a fagot to give ’em.
1876. F. BURNABY, A Ride to Khiva, ii. The Russians will not openly stop you, but they will PUT THE SCREW UPON our own Foreign Office and force the latter to do so.
1885. The Field, 12 Dec. The utterly exorbitant rents that Scotch proprietors … have managed to SCREW OUT of sportsmen in the last few years.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 12 Sept. He had little doubt of being able to PUT THE SCREW ON me for any amount I was good for.
2. (American collegiate).—(a) An unnecessarily minute examination; and (b) a SCREW. The instructor is often designated by the same name.—(B. H. HALL, A Collection of College Words and Customs, 404.)
18[?]. Harvard Register, 378 [BARTLETT]. One must experience the stammering and stuttering, the unending doubtings and guessings, to understand fully the power of a mathematical SCREW.
3. (common).—An old or worthless horse: whence (loosely) anything old. SCREWY = worn-out, worthless.
1835. APPERLEY, Nimrod’s Hunting Tour, 215. Mr. Charles Boultbee, the best SCREWdriver in England. (Note.) This is somewhat technical, and wants an explanation. A lame or very bad horse is called ‘a SCREW.’
1858. BULWER-LYTTON, What Will He Do with it? VIII. vi. I suppose I was cheated and the brute proved a SCREW.
1869. WHYTE-MELVILLE, M. or N., 61. The utmost speed attainable by a pair of high wheels, a well-bred SCREW, and a rough-looking driver.
1870. BROUGHTON, Red as a Rose Is She, xix. The oldest and SCREWIEST horse in the stables.
1870. Times, 23 July, ‘Speech of Lord Granville.’ A considerable number of what are vulgarly called SCREWS have been bought at £20 a piece.
1874. M. and F. COLLINS, Frances, xlii. Julian Orchard proved his skill as a whip by making four SCREWS do six miles in twenty-five minutes.
1897. KENNARD, The Girl in the Brown Habit, i. We had carefully husbanded our small resources and invested in a couple of likely-looking SCREWS a-piece.
4. (common).—See quot. 1851.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 494. I never was admitted to offer them in a parlour or tap-room; that would have interfered with the order for ‘SCREWS’ (penny papers of tobacco), which is a rattling good profit.
1857. DICKENS, Reprinted Pieces (Bill-Sticking), 181. A pipe, and what I understand is called ‘a SCREW’ of tobacco—an object which has the appearance of a curl-paper taken off the barmaid’s head, with the curl in it.
5. (common).—Money earned.
c. 1860. Music-hall Song, ‘The G. P. O.’ He often thought of marriage, though his SCREW was low.
1872. Figaro, 18 May. The amateur element … takes paltry salaries (often none), and keeps down the SCREW of the actor.
1879. JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Donna Quixote, xvii. They get a good SCREW at the music-halls, I’m told.
1886. Daily Telegraph, 25 Sept. £150 per annum is considered quite a good SCREW for a senior hand.
1886–96. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ from the Pink ’Un. 45. When he paid him his SCREW.
1892. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 27 Feb., 71, 3. He had now the neat salary of £450 a year, and had come to the conclusion that a person with a SCREW like that might safely commit matrimony.
6. (old).—A turnkey (GROSE): Fr. raf and griffleur. As verb. = to imprison: also TO PUT UNDER THE SCREW; SCREWING = a term of imprisonment.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, I. ii. Washing the ivory with a prime SCREW under the spikes in St. George’s Fields. Ibid., II. vii. The officer, for his own safety, was compelled to put him UNDER THE SCREW. Ibid. (1st ed.), 219. If ever I am SCREWED UP within these walls.
1869. Temple Bar, xxvi. 72. He was a fool to let the SCREW see he had the snout.
1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. The letter was produced…. It was to the effect that the woman was to try her best with the SCREWS, and that there were plenty of “quids” to get her out of prison by next Monday.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 77. The slang name for all the officials is ‘SCREWS.’
1889. Answers, 9 March, 233, 3. Great excitement was caused … by an attempt made by a prisoner on the life of a warder. The SCREW was examining the man, who was working as a tailor, &c.
1890. The Sportsman, 6 Dec. He was next trained to run at Haydock in September, and got a good SCREWING for an unfurnished puppy sixteen months old.
7. (old).—A skeleton-key: as verb. = to burgle: spec. by means of false keys; THE SCREW (or SCREW-GAME) = burglary; SCREWSMAN = a burglar (VAUX). Also ‘to stand ON THE SCREW’ = (GROSE) ‘the door is not bolted merely locked.’
1848. E. Z. C. JUDSON (‘Ned Buntline’), The Mysteries and Miseries of New York, II. ii. I sent on to have the SCREWS fitted, and somethin’s leaked out, for they’ve put a glim inside.
1857. SNOWDEN, Magistrates Assistant (3rd ed.), 445. Housebreaking implements—SCREWS.
1868. Temple Bar, xxv. 543. From that I got to be a SCREWSMAN, and a cracksman.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL. 503. I had the James (crowbar) and SCREWS (skelton-keys) on me…. We went and SCREWED (broke into) his place, and got thirty-two quid. Ibid., 505. I asked a SCREWSMAN if he would lend me some SCREWS.
1888. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 22 Dec., 305. The SCREW fits the same as if it had been made for the back door.
1888. G. R. SIMS, A Plank Bed Ballad, 5. With SCREWS and a james I was collared.
9. (common).—A dram; a PICK-ME-UP.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 231. It seems he was in the habit of taking every morning a ‘SCREW’ in the shape of a little dose of bitters to correct the effects of the last evening’s festivities.
10. (old).—A stomach ache (HALLIWELL).
A SCREW LOOSE, verb. phr. (old).—Something wrong (GROSE: ‘a complete flash phrase’).
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, I. vii. The token was sufficiently impressive to remind him that if the LOOSE SCREW was not attended to the hinges would be ultimately out of repair.
1830. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Heart of London, ii. 2. His lordship seems hipped—something wrong in the House last night, I suppose—a SCREW LOOSE on the opposition benches.
1837. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xlix. My uncle was confirmed in his original impression that something dark and mysterious was going forward, or, as he always said himself, that ‘there was a SCREW LOOSE somewhere.’
1855. A. TROLLOPE, The Warden, viii. There’s a SCREW LOOSE in their case, and we had better do nothing.
1872. South London Press, 17 Aug. Whether there was a SCREW LOOSE in the apparatus, or whether the man possessed nerves of more than ordinary power, I know not; but somehow or other the electricity had no effect.
