screw-up
22
7.0
- noun
- /ˈskruːˌʌp/
- Offensive
:
incompetente
- When it came to planning the event, Jason proved to be a real screw-up by forgetting important details.
- a screw-up of a brother
- kind of screw-up
- little screw-up
Maybe they're actually a screw up who's creating all sorts of problems.
- Maybe they're actually a screw up who's creating all sorts of problems.
- And the wrestler, the obstacle was that he's been a screw up.
- I know from my own life because I've been quite a screw up.
- Take a look at my motivations here and you know the actions that I did or I am a real screw up and I really need to fix things right?
- In other words, if you weren't such a screw up, your immortal soul would have had the good sense to have been born a white person.
Examples
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I have pictured you, alone in your studio, feeling like such a screw-up, such a failure.
Fiction book (2002) -
You talk to us screw-ups, you give us a reason for getting out of bed in the morning.
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And he had a son who was a total screw up when he was a teenager.
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But your dad was a screw-up, too.
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His brother had been a screw-up all his life, and now he was dying, and that was it.
Fiction book (2000) -
You two screw-ups deserve each other.
Fiction book (1991) -
I mean, yeah, I may be a screw up, but you're no prize yourself.
-
You're a world class screw-up, you know that, John?
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We both know that you're a screw-up, but lately...
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Say what you want, but your friend is a habitual screw-up.
Blog text (8)
Synonyms
9
9.9
A person who often makes serious or careless mistakes
2
9.9
A person who is often clumsy and makes mistakes
1
7.8
A person who often makes mistakes because they lack skill
1
7.8
A person who often makes serious mistakes because they are careless
1
6.5
A person who often makes mistakes because they lack skill
1
7.5
A person who often makes mistakes because they lack skill
Antonyms
How Inept
3
3.7
- Offensive
22
7.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
screw-up = screw up (opaque) = screw + up
The person sense develops from the idiomatic phrasal verb and is not recoverable in a fully transparent way from the parts.
Etymology
The word screw-up for a person comes from the same idea: screw 'to twist' plus up 'completely', so it suggests someone who keeps turning things into a mess. That is why a screw-up means a person who often makes important mistakes.