put the screws

verb

To apply pressure and coercion.

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Meanings

verbput the screws (third-person singular simple present puts the screws, present participle putting the screws, simple past and past participle put the screws)

present singular third person puts the screws · participle present putting the screws · alternative put the screw

  1. idiomaticTo apply pressure and coercion.

    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.

    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
    1 more example

    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.

    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, archived from the original on 15 Oct 2013
Cite this entry
APA

put the screws. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put%20the%20screws

MLA

“put the screws.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put%20the%20screws. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “put the screws,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put%20the%20screws.

Source: put the screws on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.