"put the screws" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "put the screws [+ to ]",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "[+ on ]",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "puts the screws",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "putting the screws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the screws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the screws",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "put<,,put> the screws"
      },
      "expansion": "put the screws (third-person singular simple present puts the screws, present participle putting the screws, simple past and past participle put the screws)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1962, John F. Kennedy, quoted in 2003 by Sheldon M. Stern in Averting 'the Final Failure': John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis meetings →ISBN",
          "text": "If in fact […] they put the screws on Berlin in the way that Gromyko said they were going to, then we are... I know that we were bound to invade Cuba under those conditions."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 October 13, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Lisa’s Wedding” (season six, episode 19; originally aired 3/19/1995)”, in The Onion AV Club",
          "text": "Near the end of a year when Fox was putting the screws to The Simpsons, the extra effort required of “Lisa’s Wedding” was justly rewarded, earning the episode the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To apply pressure."
      ],
      "id": "en-put_the_screws-en-verb-d31fOfG8",
      "links": [
        [
          "pressure",
          "pressure"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To apply pressure."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "put the screw"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-put the screws.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9e/En-au-put_the_screws.ogg/En-au-put_the_screws.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/En-au-put_the_screws.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "put the screws"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "put the screws [+ to ]",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "[+ on ]",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "puts the screws",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "putting the screws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the screws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "put the screws",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "put<,,put> the screws"
      },
      "expansion": "put the screws (third-person singular simple present puts the screws, present participle putting the screws, simple past and past participle put the screws)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1962, John F. Kennedy, quoted in 2003 by Sheldon M. Stern in Averting 'the Final Failure': John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis meetings →ISBN",
          "text": "If in fact […] they put the screws on Berlin in the way that Gromyko said they were going to, then we are... I know that we were bound to invade Cuba under those conditions."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 October 13, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Lisa’s Wedding” (season six, episode 19; originally aired 3/19/1995)”, in The Onion AV Club",
          "text": "Near the end of a year when Fox was putting the screws to The Simpsons, the extra effort required of “Lisa’s Wedding” was justly rewarded, earning the episode the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To apply pressure."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pressure",
          "pressure"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To apply pressure."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-put the screws.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9e/En-au-put_the_screws.ogg/En-au-put_the_screws.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/En-au-put_the_screws.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "put the screw"
    }
  ],
  "word": "put the screws"
}