noun General Slang

screw

· noun · prison

Prison officer — the UK lag's word for the man with the keys.

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Definitions

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A prison officer, British and Irish slang. Said to come from the old turnkey job — screwing the lock shut. Long-running, still the default inmate term in UK nicks. Not a compliment.

“The screws did a spin of his pad and found the phone.”
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screw In A Sentence

The screws did a spin of his pad and found the phone.

Origin & Usage

19th-century British prison slang, from the action of turning the key — 'putting on the screw' to lock the cell.

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