Word.ws English Dictionary

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

US/θə‿fɚɹst‿tɚn‿ʌv‿θə‿skɹu‿peɪ̯z‿ɑl‿dɛts/

the first turn of the screw pays all debts proverb: one's problems on shore may be forgotten at the first turn of one's ship's propeller.

Proverb

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

  1. One's problems on shore may be forgotten at the first turn of one's ship's propeller.
    • On the one hand was Martyn's dictum that the 'first turn of the screw pays all debts';1943, Geoffrey Willans, One Eye on the Clock, page 41
    • —The first turn of the screw pays all debts, he had muttered (crossing himself) in the stern of the Purdue Victory, where the deck shuddered underfoot as the blades of the single screw churned Boston's water beneath him;1955, William Gaddis, The Recogntions, page 9

Questions about the first turn of the screw pays all debts

What does the first turn of the screw pays all debts mean?
The first turn of the screw pays all debts means one's problems on shore may be forgotten at the first turn of one's ship's propeller.
What part of speech is the first turn of the screw pays all debts?
The first turn of the screw pays all debts is a proverb.
How do you pronounce the first turn of the screw pays all debts?
The first turn of the screw pays all debts is pronounced /θə‿fɚɹst‿tɚn‿ʌv‿θə‿skɹu‿peɪ̯z‿ɑl‿dɛts/ (US).

Words near the first turn of the screw pays all debts in the dictionary

  1. the finest
  2. the finger
  3. the fingers
  4. The Firm
  5. the first step is always the hardest
  6. the first turn of the screw pays all debts
  7. the fish rots from the head
  8. the fix is in
  9. the floor is lava
  10. the flying fuck out of
  11. the forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the first turn of the screw pays all debts (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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