screw up

verb

To harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess: ball up, blunder, boggle, botch, bungle, foul up, fumble, gum up, mess up, mishandle, mismanage, muddle, muff, spoil. Informal bollix up, muck up. Slang blow¹, goof up, louse up, snafu. Idioms: make a muck of. See correct/incorrect, help/harm/harmless.

1.  Muster or summon up; see pluck up one's courage.
2.  Make a mess of an undertaking; also, make a mistake, as in I really screwed up this report, or She said she was sorry, admitting that she had screwed up. Some authorities believe this usage is a euphemism for fuck up. [Slang; c. 1940]
3.  Injure, damage, as in I screwed up my back lifting all those heavy books. [Slang]
4.  Make neurotic or anxious, as in Her family really screwed her up, but her therapist has helped her a lot. [Slang; mid-1900s]

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v

Definition: make a mess of
Antonyms: succeed

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The verb has 4 meanings:

Meaning #1: make more intense
  Synonyms: heat up, hot up

Meaning #2: make a mess of, destroy or ruin
  Synonyms: botch, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up

Meaning #3: screw or turn higher

Meaning #4: twist into a strained configuration

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - rod, juks, fiasko

Français (French)
n. - cafouillage

Deutsch (German)
n. - (Slang) Chaos

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μπέρδεμα

Italiano (Italian)
fallimento

Português (Portuguese)
n. - errar (f)

Русский (Russian)
провал (мероприятия), грубый промах или просчет

Español (Spanish)
n. - embrollo, lío, confusión

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - misslyckande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
弄坏的事, 犯错误的人, 混乱的状况, 失败者

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 弄壞的事, 犯錯誤的人, 混亂的狀況, 失敗者

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 얼빠진 놈, 쓸모 없는 녀석, 큰 실수

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - へま, どじ, へまなやつ

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מחדל, כישלון, שיבוש, אי-סדר‬

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