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Screw up   /skru əp/   Listen
Screw up

verb
1.
Make more intense.  Synonyms: heat up, hot up.
2.
Make a mess of, destroy or ruin.  Synonyms: ball up, blow, bobble, bodge, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, botch, botch up, bumble, bungle, flub, fluff, foul up, fuck up, fumble, louse up, mess up, mishandle, muck up, muff, spoil.  "The pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement"
3.
Screw or turn higher.
4.
Twist into a strained configuration.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Screw up" Quotes from Famous Books



... combination with the horizontal axis of the distribution valve and with the piston rod, g, considered as a vertical axis of rotation, forms a species of universal joint between the crank pin and the table, so that it can be put in place without adjustment by any workman, who only has to screw up the two screws, h, to fasten to the table the standard, E, and the piece, E', in which are screwed the pivots, e and e', which support the tank, and this all the rest ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 • Various

... bottle of beer to his expense account, endures for a few moments the bawling above the scream of the piano of two Americans of Palestinian antecedents, admires some local hero, like "Baldy" for instance, who is credited with doing what Napoleon could not do, and floats on, perhaps to screw up his courage and venture into the thinly-clad Teatro Apolo. He who knows where to look, or was born under a lucky star, may even see on these merry evenings a big Marine from Bas Obispo or a burly soldier of the Tenth howling some joyful song with six or seven little "Spig" policemen climbing ...
— Zone Policeman 88 - A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and its Workers • Harry A. Franck



Words linked to "Screw up" :   heighten, screw, fail, miscarry, intensify, grimace, screwup, go wrong, deepen, compound, make a face, pull a face



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