screwed
screwed adjective: beset with unfortunate circumstances that seem difficult or impossible to overcome; in imminent danger. Also the simple past and past participle of screw.
Adjective
screwed (comparative more screwed, superlative most screwed)
- Beset with unfortunate circumstances that seem difficult or impossible to overcome; in imminent danger.
- They found out about our betrayal, so now we're screwed.
- Synonyms:
- fucked
- Intoxicated.
- "[…] Did you know that my husband came home intoxicated?"
Mrs. Brown laughed.
"Oh, not so bad as that, surely! Only a little 'screwed.' George was 'quisby,' too. But then its Christmas, you know."1889, Belgravia, volume 70, page 15 - Besides they were dreadfully afraid that Freddy Malins might turn up screwed. They would not wish for worlds that any of Mary Jane's pupils should see him under the influence; […]1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, pages 217–218
- Synonyms:
- drunk
- "[…] Did you know that my husband came home intoxicated?"
Also used as
screwed is also the simple past and past participle of screw.
Synonyms of screwed
Forms of screwed
| comparative | more screwed |
|---|---|
| superlative | most screwed |
Origin of screwed
From screw + -ed. * The modern sense of screwed originates in the mid-1600s with a sense of to screw as a means of "exerting pressure or coercion", probably in reference to instruments of torture (e.g. thumbscrews). It quickly gained a wider general sense of "in a bind; in unfortunate inescapable circumstances". When the verb screw gained a sexual connotation in the early 1700s, it joined the long-lasting association of sexual imagery as a metaphor for domination, leading to screwed gaining synonyms like fucked and shagged. On a more general note, this is a prime example of the frequent tendency for verb participles to evolve into participial adjectives. * The sense meaning "intoxicated" is from the early 1800s, and is associated with the term screwy, and the idiom to have a screw loose.
Words formed from screwed
- screwed and chopped
- screwed, blued and tattooed / screwed, glued and tattooed
- screwedness
Phrases with screwed
- get screwed
- screwed off
- screwed back
- screwed over
- screwed with
- screwed about
- screwed around
- screwed the pooch
- chopped and screwed
- screwed up one's courage
- have one's head screwed on
- have one's head screwed on right
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with screwed
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- lewd
- rood
- snood
- Jude
- denude
- extrude
- exude
- feud
- nude
- obtrude
- reclude
- stewed
- subdued
- transclude
- abrood
- delude
- hewed
- intrude
- oud
- pood
- seclude
- skewed
- strewed
- thewed
- you'd
- 'tude
- ablude
- abstrude
- accrued
- allude
- blued
- boo'd
- booed
- brewed
- Bude
- chewed
- chud
- clued
- collude
- construed
- cooed
- crewed
- cued
- debuted
- dzud
- fod
- frood
- glued
Questions about screwed
- What does screwed mean?
- Screwed means beset with unfortunate circumstances that seem difficult or impossible to overcome; in imminent danger.
- What part of speech is screwed?
- Screwed is an adjective.
Words near screwed in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: screwed (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-us-screwed.ogg.
Cite this entry: “screwed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/screwed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.