Standard Lemma guide

screwy

adj · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈskɹuː.i/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -uːi
  • CMU ARPABET: S K R UW1 IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Crazy; silly; ridiculous

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

Examples

  • That's a screwy idea; I am not going to fly all the way to Antarctica just to see a penguin!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: 5150, bananas, barking, barking mad, buggish, buggy, bughouse, barmy, batchy, batpoop, bats, batty, bonkers, bread baskets, cracked, crackers, cra-cra, cray, cray-cray, crazed, crazy, crazy as a bedbug, crazy as a cootie, crazy as a cootie bug, crazy as a pet coon, cuckoo, daffy, daft, demented, deranged, distraught, disturbed, doolally, dotty, eccentric, fruit loops, gaga, hatstand, harebrained, insane, kooky, loon, loco, loony, loony tunes, loopy, lunatic, mad, mental, mentally ill, meshigener, meshugge, moonsick, nerts, non compos mentis, nonsane, nucking futs, nut job, nutballs, nut, nuts, nutso, nutty, nutter, off the beam, off the chain, over the edge, potty, psycho, psychoceramic, psychotic, sicko, screwy, squirrelly, starkers, tonto, unbalanced, unsane, wackadoodle, weird, whackjob, whacko, whacky, wode, yampy, zany, apeshit, batcrap, batshit, bat-shit, fucked in the head, fucked up, ripshit

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Tipsy; slightly drunk.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed, a sheet in the wind, a sheet in the wind's eye, bedrunken, befuddled, beliquored, besotted, besotten, bevvied, bibacious, bibulous, binned, bingoed, bladdered, blasted, blewed, blind, blind drunk, blitzed, blocked, blootered, blottoed, blue, bollocksed, bombed, boozy, bosky, bottled, Brahms, Brahms and Liszt, budgy, bungalowed, bungfu, burlin', canned, clobbered, corned, cocked, cockeyed, crapulous, crocked, cunted, cup-shot, cup-shotten, cut, dead drunk, destroyed, disguised, drunk, drunk as a piper, drunked up, drunken, ebriated, ebriose, elephant's, elephant's trunk, elevated, faced, fap, fershnickered, flooey, floored, flush, flushed, flustered, fluted, fluthered, feeling no pain, fou, four sheets in the wind, fresh, fried, frosted, fuckered up, fuckfaced, fuddled, full, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, gassed, gattered, gee-eyed, gesuip, ginned, gished, glorious, groggified, groggy, half polluted, half cut, half lit, half seas over, hammered, have drink taken, have the sun in one's eyes, hazed, high as a Georgia pine, high as a kite, high, hog-whimpering, honkers, hooched up, hooted, hoovered, hosed, how came you so, impaired, in liquor, in one's altitudes, in one's cups, in the bag, in the drink, inebriate, inebriated, inebrious, insober, insobrietous, inter pocula, jaked, jarred, juiced, juiced up, kaylied, kettled, kisky, lamped, langered, langers, larruped, lash, lashed, lathered, legless, liquored up, liquory, lit, loaded, looped, loopy, loose, lubed, lubed up, lubricated, lushed, mabok, mad with it, maggot, maggoted, mashed, maudlin, medicated, messed up, monged, mortal, mortalled, Mozart and Liszt, muddled, muggy, mullered, munted, muzzy, MWI, nappy, newted, nimptopsical, obfuscated, obliviated, off one's box, off one's head, off one's tits, oiled, oiled up, Oliver, Oliver Twist, on the ran tan, ossified, out of it, out of one's box, out of one's face, out of one's head, out of sight, overcome, overrefreshed, overtaken, paralytic, parlatic, pickled, pie-eyed, pixilated, plastered, ploughed, plowed, polluted, potshot, potted, pounded, primed, puggled, quisby, raddled, ratfaced, razzled, ripe, ripped, rolling, rubbered, sauced, sauced up, scammered, schloshed, schnockered, screwed, scuttered, sewed up, shedded, shellacked, shicker, shickered, shitty, skunked, slammed, slarmied, slizzard, sloppy drunk, sloshed, smashed, snockered, snookered, snozzled, snuffy, soaken, sodden, soshed, sotted, sottish, souped-up, soused, sozzled, sozzly, spanceled, spannered, spiffed, splashed, spongy, sprung, squiffed, steamboats, stewed, stinking, stinko, stoated, stoned, stonkered, stotious, strut, swacked, tanked, tanked up, temulent, temulentive, three sheets in the wind, three sheets to the wind, throwed, tight as a tick, tight, tilted, tippled, tipsy, tired and emotional, toasted, top-heavy, top-heavy with drink, toping, trashed, tuned, twatfaced, twisted, wastey, wazzed, wazzocked, well-oiled, wellied, wet, whittled, withered, wobbly, woozy, worse for liquor, worse for wear, wrecked, zoned, zonked, zooted, zorched, zotzed

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Exacting; extortionate; close.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Worthless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bastardly, blown, cacky, chaffy, cocking, crapalicious, cruddy, cullionly, draffish, draffy, dreckish, drecky, duffing, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, for the birds, fucking, garbagey, good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, goodless, ineffectual, invaluable, jabberwocky, junky, mouldy, mucid, naughty, no-account, no good / no-good, nonvaluable, not worth a damn, not worth a dime, not worth a plug nickel, not worth a brass farthing, not worth a cent, not worth a cress, not worth a curse, not worth a Continental, not worth a farthing, not worth hell room, not worth a nickel, not worth a penny, not worth salt, not worth a whistle, nought, of no value, pissass, punk, putid, rubbishly, rubbishy, sixpenny, scabbed, screwy, scummy, shand, shit, shitey, shitstained, shitty-ass, sorry-ass, strawlike, suckworthy, tenth-rate, toshy, trinkety, triobolar, tripy, two-bit, unappreciated, unvaluable, vain, valueless, worthless, worth nothing, wutless

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

not behaving normally

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: screw-loose

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From screw + -y. 1820, original meaning “tipsy, slightly drunk”; meaning “crazy, ridiculous” first recorded 1887.