Word.ws English Dictionary

put the screws

put the screws verb: to apply pressure and coercion.

Verb

put the screws (third-person singular simple present puts the screws, present participle putting the screws, simple past and past participle put the screws)

  1. (idiomatic) To apply pressure and coercion.
    • If in fact […] they put the screws on Berlin in the way that Gromyko said they were going to, then we are... I know that we were bound to invade Cuba under those conditions.1962, John F. Kennedy, quoted in 2003 by Sheldon M. Stern in Averting 'the Final Failure': John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis meetings →ISBN
    • Near the end of a year when Fox was putting the screws to The Simpsons, the extra effort required of “Lisa’s Wedding” was justly rewarded, earning the episode the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animation.2013 October 13, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Lisa’s Wedding” (season six, episode 19; originally aired 3/19/1995)”, in The Onion AV Club

Forms of put the screws

third-person singular presentputs the screws
present participleputting the screws
past participleput the screws
pastput the screws
alternative formput the screw

Questions about put the screws

What does put the screws mean?
Put the screws means to apply pressure and coercion.
What part of speech is put the screws?
Put the screws is a verb.
What is the past tense of put the screws?
The past tense of put the screws is put the screws.

Words near put the screws in the dictionary

  1. put the question to
  2. put the record straight
  3. put the saddle on the right horse
  4. put the same shoe on every foot
  5. put the screw
  6. put the screws
  7. put the shits up someone
  8. put the shoe on the other foot
  9. put the squeeze on
  10. put the stunners on
  11. put the tin lid on it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put the screws (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-put the screws.ogg.

Cite this entry: “put the screws.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_the_screws. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.