My Two Cents ... XVII

After some sort of blank brain as far as a good phrase for today's post is concerned, I decided to look into the phrase

"to be screwed"

What does it mean?

It means to be cheated or tricked, or to be in a hopeless situation.

What is its origin?

I couldn't find any exact facts on the origin of it being used in this sense but the verb "to screw" has been used in a different than the original meaning (fasten something with a screw) in slang since at least 1725.

My two cents:

I would never have thought that the other slang use (in sexual context) was that old. Maybe because I never realised that people already had slang centuries ago. I mean, I knew that the poorer classes in Victorian England spoke their own slang but somehow...I didn't know it went back that far. It's interesting, though, that I couldn't find an approximate date of origin for the meaning I present here.