# screwed

Pronunciation: say "SKROOD" /skɹuːd/

## Adjective

1. Stuck in a bad situation that seems too difficult to overcome, often with trouble or danger close at hand. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In a very bad situation that is hard or impossible to escape.
   - _With the deadline an hour away and the files lost, the whole team was screwed._
   - _Once the investors pulled out, the startup was completely screwed._

## Verb

2. Simple past and past participle of screw. — simple past and past participle of screw
   - Simple: Past tense and past participle of screw. Use it for the past, or after has, have, had, is, was or were.
   - _The carpenter screwed each plank down before sanding the deck._
   - _The metal panels were screwed together with steel bolts._

## Adjective

3. Drunk; under the influence of too much alcohol. *(dated, British)*
   - Simple: Drunk from having too much alcohol to drink.
   - _Half the wedding guests were thoroughly screwed before the speeches even began._
   - _He came home from the pub screwed and singing at the top of his voice._

## Origin

From screw + -ed. The modern sense began in the mid-1600s, when to screw meant "to exert pressure or coercion," probably in reference to instruments of torture such as thumbscrews; it soon broadened to mean "in a bind; in unfortunate, inescapable circumstances." When screw took on a sexual meaning in the early 1700s, screwed gained synonyms like fucked and shagged, while a separate sense meaning "intoxicated" appeared in the early 1800s, linked to screwy and the idiom to have a screw loose.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/screwed (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).