单词 | on the screw |
释义 | > as lemmason the screw a. A key; spec. a skeleton key, esp. one used to enter a property illegally. Formerly also: † on the screw: locked with a key; (of a person) illegally entering with a key (obsolete). Now rare.In quot. 1819: access gained or a robbery effected using a skeleton key. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > fastenings > [noun] > key > skeleton key or picklock picklock1567 wrester1591 picklock key1609 gilk1610 gilt1667 ginny1669 dub1699 false key1701 screwa1790 skeleton key1810 twirl1879 skeleton1884 pick1890 twirler1921 a1790 H. T. Potter New Dict. Cant & Flash Langs. (1795) Screw, a false key. 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum Screw, a skeleton key... To stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but merely locked. 1816 Whole Four Trials of Thief Takers 26 He said he had been on the screw, (that is, lifting the latch of a door), and sneaked out a piece of broady (broad cloth) and that it was as good as bread. 1819 J. H. Vaux New Vocab. Flash Lang. in Memoirs II. 204 To screw a place is to enter it by false keys; this game is called the screw. Any robbery effected by such means is termed a screw. 1831 G. Henson Civil Hist. Framework-knitters iv. 254 A screwer..makes picklock keys (termed screws), house-breaking tools etc. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 29 May 2/1 So the next night I borrows a bunch of screws—them's skeleton keys—and an old jemmy. 1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing xiii. 258 He sprung the paddy with a screw, he opened the lock with a key. 1933 G. Laven Rough Stuff ii. 19 I got a screw..that would open any catch-lock. < as lemmas |
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