Word.ws English Dictionary

screwing

screwing is the present participle and gerund of screw.

Noun

screwing (plural screwings)

  1. The act by which something is screwed (in various senses).
    • I fear there is too much reason to acknowledge the truth of his remarks regarding the original formation of railways, but are the screwings out of the poor pittance received by some of the 20,000 at present employed to keep them in operation, to be the means of compensating the proprietors for the...1843, Railway Times, volume 6, page 1260
    • But this was a sadly lingering process, since there must be as many screwings and unscrewings as there are copies to be printed.1854, George Dodd, The Curiosities of Industry and the Applied Sciences, page 35
  2. (slang, vulgar) An act of sexual intercourse.

Meaning of screw

Verb

screw (third-person singular simple present screws, present participle screwing, simple past screwed, past participle screwed or (rare, nonstandard) screwn)

  1. (transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
  2. (ambitransitive, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with.
    • Somebody told me [...] that she [...] acknowledged to him [...] that Nero [...] had screwed her (meaning had carnal intercourse with plaintiff) up stairs the night before.1890, Albert G. Porter, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana
    Synonyms:
    fuck, root, shag, Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy, feague
  3. (slang, transitive) To cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.
    Synonyms:
    fuck, screw over
  4. (transitive) To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.
    • […] our country landlords, by unmeasurable screwing and racking their tenants, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France, or the vassals in Germany and Poland […]1720, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture
  5. (transitive) To contort.
    • He screwed his face into a hardened smile.1690, John Dryden, Don Sebastian, act 2, scene 1
    Synonyms:
    twist, writhe
  6. (transitive) To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.
    • The visitors could have added an instant second, but Rooney screwed an ugly attempt high into Hennessey's arms after Berbatov cleverly found the unmarked England striker.2011 February 5, Chris Whyatt, “Wolverhampton 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC

See all 28 meanings of screw

Adjective

screwing (comparative more screwing, superlative most screwing)

  1. (archaic) Exacting; extortionate; close.

Forms of screwing

Noun
pluralscrewings
Adjective
comparativemore screwing
superlativemost screwing

Words formed from screwing

Phrases with screwing

Questions about screwing

What does screwing mean?
Screwing means the act by which something is screwed (in various senses).
What is screwing the present participle and gerund of?
Screwing is the present participle and gerund of screw.
What part of speech is screwing?
Screwing can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of screwing?
The plural of screwing is screwings.

Words near screwing in the dictionary

  1. screwhorn antelope
  2. screwier
  3. screwiest
  4. screwin'
  5. screwiness
  6. screwing
  7. screwing about
  8. screwing around
  9. screwing back
  10. screwing off
  11. screwing over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screwing (page history and authors); screw (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-screwing.ogg.

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