Definify.com

Definition 2024


put_the_screws

put the screws

English

Verb

put the screws

  1. (idiomatic) To apply pressure (to something)
    • 1962, John F. Kennedy, quoted in 2003 by Sheldon M. Stern in Averting 'the Final Failure': John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis meetings (ISBN 0804748462):
      If in fact [] they put the screws on Berlin in the way that Gromyko said they were going to, then we are... I know that we were bound to invade Cuba under those conditions.
    • 2013 October 13, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Lisa’s Wedding” (season six, episode 19; originally aired 3/19/1995)”, in The Onion AV Club:
      Near the end of a year when Fox was putting the screws to The Simpsons, the extra effort required of “Lisa’s Wedding” was justly rewarded, earning the episode the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animation.