Word.ws English Dictionary

turns the screw

turns the screw is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 turns the screw

What is turns the screw the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Turns the screw is the third-person singular simple present indicative of turn the screw.

Words near turns the screw in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turns 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: “turns the screw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turns_the_screw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.