Phillips screw
- noun
- /ˈfɪlɪps skruː/
- Specialized
:
tornillo Phillips
- However, what worked on the assembly line has bedeviled handymen ever since. - Witold Rybczynski on the Phillips screw, One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw, 2000.
Examples
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Sadly though, this makes working in it a huge pain, and each side panel is held on by Phillips screws rather than, you know, little quick releases.
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First of all, Phillips screws for the back plate strictly.
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So here's the top of the Phillips screw and you know, from a perfect golden master image.
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Just held on with two little Phillips screws down the bottom cross head screws.
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I could replace all the Phillips screws in my life and in my projects with torque screws.
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Tolerating misalignment between the driver and screw is a particularly strong suit of the Phillips screw and its variants.
Academic text (2002) -
So there's loads of Phillips screws around the back here and it says clock but not turning on, but it is turning on but not all the time.
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The Torx design resisted cam-out better than Phillips screws did.
Academic text (2002) -
But, in 1933, Eugene Green, the American Screw Co.'s new president, pronounced the Phillips screw the wave of the future at about the same time a shop foreman there was developing a method for cold heading the cruciform socket.
Academic text (2002) -
To repair the bicycle, he needed to remove the Phillips screw holding the brake in place.
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
Phillips + screw
The noun 'screw' is transparent but 'Phillips' is a proper name/brand that does not semantically indicate the cross-shaped slot; a learner who knows both words would not infer the specific head shape or screwdriver compatibility. Because the defining feature (the cross-shaped slot) is not derivable from the constituents, the expression is idiomatic/term-like and therefore opaque to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The noun Phillips screw is named after inventor Henry F. Phillips, who made a screw with a small cross-shaped slot on the head. The cross lets a matching Phillips screwdriver fit into the screw and turn it more easily, so today the term means 'a screw with a cross-shaped head'.