Definition of SCREWUP

Examples of screwup in a Sentence

Noun

That was a major screwup. She's a screwup who can't hold down a job.

Verb

we all screw up from time to time, so don't sweat it you've totally screwed up the spreadsheet

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

The project—and tight-fisted Congress—probably can't handle more cleaning solvent screwups. — Eric Niiler, WIRED, "Delays, Rising Costs Plague NASA's James Webb Space Telescope," 27 June 2018 Irgo never expressed any desire to see Japan, but the 10-year-old German Shepard found himself on an unexpected flight from Denver to the Tokyo area thanks to a United Airlines screwup Tuesday. — Andrew Theen, OregonLive.com, "From Salem to Denver to Japan: A dog's unplanned journey to the Far East thanks to United Airlines," 14 Mar. 2018 Even the president is said to have worried about the beating the young pair, especially his beloved daughter, have taken in the press for their screwups and failures. — The Editors Of Gq, GQ, "The 50 Most Powerful People In Trump’s Washington*," 22 Feb. 2018 Well, a lot of things: more positive attitudes about the GOP tax bill (which Democrats never stopped attacking); more economic optimism; and a stretch of time when President Trump didn’t dominate the news with some fresh hellish screwup. — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, "Is Democratic Cooperation With Trump Depressing Supporters?," 11 Feb. 2018 There have been screwups on the field, questionable decisions from the managers, the usual foibles that have critics pointing the fingers of blame. — Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle, "It’s Game 7, as it should be, in the World Series," 31 Oct. 2017 In the end, a diluted version of the government screwup that took Barb's (Shannon Purser) life is exposed, catapulting Hawkins into the national spotlight. — Ashley Hoffman, Time, "Stranger Things," 27 Oct. 2017 Miazga meanders in his analysis but his takeaway is simple enough: both Byrnes and Legg were screwups. — Justin Nobel, Longreads, "Atomic City," 5 Sep. 2017 The whole thing was filmed in one session, screwups and all. — Elise Taylor, Vogue, "5 Fascinating Things You Didn’t Know About Julia Child, America’s Most Beloved Chef," 15 Aug. 2017

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

There's clueless Rachel completely screwing up a recipe for trifle. — Phoebe Robinson, Glamour, "Friends Thanksgiving Episodes Guide: List of the Best and Worst," 21 Nov. 2018 So much effort to go through, and such a small detail to screw up in the end. — Gideon Lewis-kraus, WIRED, "The Blockchain: A Love Story—And a Horror Story," 18 June 2018 But the Jets screwed up in believing accuracy issues that were clearly there at Penn State (and Bill O’Brien effectively covered up in 2013) could be solved in the pros. — Albert Breer, SI.com, "For Andrew Luck, It All Re-Starts Here," 18 June 2018 There are organizations devoted to catching me screw up. — Fox News, "2014 photo of detained children used as swipe against Trump," 3 June 2018 Who is going to buy oil on Christmas eve with these shenanigans going on, with stocks going down, Trump blaming the Fed and [Treasury Secretary] Mnuchin screwing up by calling bankers. — Neanda Salvaterra, WSJ, "U.S. Oil Prices Fall to 18-Month Low as Wall Street Tumbles," 24 Dec. 2018 One hypothesis for the cause of this bug is a conflict with the automatic date and time settings, which screwed up the chronology of texts. — Alexander George, Popular Mechanics, "Why Your iMessage Is Misbehaving and How to Fix It," 8 Nov. 2018 He's now created an insane conspiracy theory for his screw up. — Emily Stewart, Vox, "Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre Twitter conspiracy theory, explained," 5 Dec. 2018 So, all signs point to them having a boy, unless someone screwed up the release. — The Editors, Marie Claire, "Dakota Johnson Responds to Reports She's Pregnant With Chris Martin's Child," 8 Oct. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'screwup.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.