Word.ws English Dictionary

turned the screw

turned the screw is the simple past and past participle of turn the screw.

Meaning of turn the screw

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

Questions about turned the screw

What is turned the screw the simple past and past participle of?
Turned the screw is the simple past and past participle of turn the screw.

Words near turned the screw in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turned the screw (page history and authors); 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:

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