put the screws

English

Alternative forms

• put the screw

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

put the screws (third-person singular simple present puts the screws, present participle putting the screws, simple past and past participle put the screws) [+ to (object)] or [+ on (object)]

1. (idiomatic) To apply pressure.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 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^[1]:

     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.