mindscrew

English

Etymology

From mind +‎ screw (“to play with; to meddle”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

mindscrew (plural mindscrews)

1. (slang) Something that destabilizes, confuses, or manipulates a person's mind.
   • 2009 May 12, Jay A. Fernandez, “Abrams making a name for himself, but it's not Steven Spielberg just yet”, in The Hollywood Reporter:

     It's in television that Abrams, arguably more than Spielberg, has nudged the medium forward, with "Felicity," then "Alias" and finally the mindscrew of "Lost."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mindscrew.

Synonyms

• brainfuck (vulgar), headfuck (vulgar), mindfuck (vulgar)

Verb

mindscrew (third-person singular simple present mindscrews, present participle mindscrewing, simple past and past participle mindscrewed)

1. To destabilize, confuse, or manipulate a person's mind.
   • 1997, Howard Swindle, Trespasses: Portraits of a Serial Rapist, Penguin, published 1997, →ISBN:

     About half the detectives thought his return to the old neighborhood was proof positive that he was out of control; still others believed he had ice water running through his veins, maybe even mindscrewing the cops by rubbing their noses in the fact they couldn't stop him even though they suspected who he was

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mindscrew.