Dictionary

the first turn of the screw pays all debts en · X

Pronunciation

• /θə‿fɚɹst‿tɚn‿ʌv‿θə‿skɹu‿peɪ̯z‿ɑl‿dɛts/ (General-American)

Meanings

1. One's problems on shore may be forgotten at the first turn of one's ship's propeller.
   • The first turn of the screw pays all debts, they say, except when there is a warship about. 1991, T.R. Frame, J.V.P Goldrick, P.D. Jones, Reflections on the RAN, page 16:
   • —The first turn of the screw pays all debts, he had muttered (crossing himself) in the stern of the Purdue Victory, where the deck shuddered underfoot as the blades of the single screw churned Boston's water beneath him; 1955, William Gaddis, The Recogntions, page 9:
   • On the one hand was Martyn's dictum that the 'first turn of the screw pays all debts'; 1943, Geoffrey Willans, One Eye on the Clock, page 41: