Meanings
- nauticalOne's problems on shore may be forgotten at the first turn of one's ship's propeller.
On the one hand was Martyn's dictum that the 'first turn of the screw pays all debts';
1943, Geoffrey Willans, One Eye on the Clock, page 412 more examples
—The first turn of the screw pays all debts, he had muttered (crossing himself) in the stern of the Purdue Victory, where the deck shuddered underfoot as the blades of the single screw churned Boston's water beneath him;
1955, William Gaddis, The Recogntions, page 9The first turn of the screw pays all debts, they say, except when there is a warship about.
1991, T.R. Frame, J.V.P Goldrick, P.D. Jones, Reflections on the RAN, page 16
Cite this entry
the first turn of the screw pays all debts. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20first%20turn%20of%20the%20screw%20pays%20all%20debts
“the first turn of the screw pays all debts.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20first%20turn%20of%20the%20screw%20pays%20all%20debts. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “the first turn of the screw pays all debts,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20first%20turn%20of%20the%20screw%20pays%20all%20debts.
Source: the first turn of the screw pays all debts on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.