Word.ws English Dictionary

turn the screw

turn the screw verb: to increase the pressure of a situation.

Verb

turn the screw (third-person singular simple present turns the screw, present participle turning the screw, simple past and past participle turned the screw)

  1. (idiomatic) To increase the pressure of a situation.
    • Arsenal's dominance was reflected in a flurry of goals before half-time – three in six minutes: first, Podolski turned the screw with a peach of a free-kick; then Gervinho accelerated on to Mikel Arteta's beautifully crafted pass and beat Davis at his near post with conviction; and finally...2012 September 15, Amy Lawrence, “Arsenal's Gervinho enjoys the joy of six against lowly Southampton”, in the Guardian

Forms of turn the screw

third-person singular presentturns the screw
present participleturning the screw
past participleturned the screw
pastturned the screw
alternative formturn the screws

Questions about turn the screw

What does turn the screw mean?
Turn the screw means to increase the pressure of a situation.
What part of speech is turn the screw?
Turn the screw is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn the screw?
The past tense of turn the screw is turned the screw.

Words near turn the screw in the dictionary

  1. turn the knife in the wound
  2. turn the other cheek
  3. turn the other way
  4. turn the page
  5. turn the scale
  6. turn the screw
  7. turn the screws
  8. turn the table
  9. turn the tables
  10. turn the tide
  11. turn the trick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn the 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-turn the screw.ogg.

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