Word.ws English Dictionary

putting the screws

putting the screws is the present participle and gerund of put the screws.

Meaning of put the screws

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

Questions about putting the screws

What is putting the screws the present participle and gerund of?
Putting the screws is the present participle and gerund of put the screws.

Words near putting the screws in the dictionary

  1. putting the pot on
  2. putting the question to
  3. putting the record straight
  4. putting the saddle on the right horse
  5. putting the screw
  6. putting the screws
  7. putting the squeeze on
  8. putting the stunners on
  9. putting the tin lid on it
  10. putting the toothpaste back in the tube
  11. putting the wood in the hole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting the screws (page history and authors); 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.

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